Western companies often use intellectual property to protect their markets or operating profits, excluding competitors from the market. For example, Chinese companies exhibiting in the United States may pose import, sale, or promise of sale of infringing products if the product is covered by another's intellectual property and may face intellectual property litigation in federal district courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Intellectual property litigation will bring tremendous money, marketing and business opportunities to the enterprise. For example, an enterprise may compensate the patentee millions of times or more for infringement damages, and will pay up to three times the infringer's compensation for the intentional infringement, even including the legal fees of the other party.
Intellectual property risk can be reduced or even avoided. Chinese companies may conduct due diligence on their products to Freedom to Operate before participating in the exhibition, analyze the patents of their competitors, especially those participating in the competition, and try to circumvent these patents. In particular, when similar products have caused litigation, Chinese companies can review the litigation information and find out which patents have been involved in litigation. In addition, Chinese companies can analyze their own research by searching patent databases of the countries where the exhibitions are located or employ highly experienced patent lawyers in the country to discover patent obstacles and analyze the infringement risks of their products. In the United States, when the results of the analysis are good for business, U.S. patent attorneys can issue written legal advice without infringement. Chinese companies are relying on goodwill and reasonable non-infringement legal advice from qualified US lawyers to effectively reduce the risk of being directly or deliberately infringing and indirectly infringing (assisting and inducing infringement).
According to the results of due diligence analysis, Chinese enterprises can patented products to avoid design, reduce the risk of infringement or willful infringement. Some U.S. courts and juries will make non-infringement or unintentional infringement claims based on the defendant's efforts to circumvent the patent (for example, removing the alleged infringement function on the product). Avoiding design can also help Chinese enterprises to provide ideas for R & D and innovation.
If patents are hard to avoid, avoidance of design or too costly, Chinese companies may consider negotiating with patent holders without a license to start production or enter the market where the show is located, obtaining patent licenses at reasonable prices. Chinese enterprises that have the patents they need each other can cross-license to the country for exhibiting and entering the country's market.
In addition, Chinese enterprises can also search for their own technologies themselves or through third parties, and then employ experienced patent applicants from participating countries to invalidate the patent on the patent in the patent office in the country to completely eliminate the risks brought by the patent. For example, Chinese companies may file a one-way review at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, reconsideration after authorization, post-licensing reconsideration of business method patents, and reconsideration by both parties. Among them, the post-grant reconsideration, the post-grant reconsideration of the business method patents and the reconsideration of both parties are new invalidation procedures after the revision of the U.S. Patent Law in 2012, which takes a short time (only 1 year after the filing), compared with the invalidation of the patent in the court proceedings. , Low cost (about one-tenth of court costs), high success rate (after the filing of the patent claims to withdraw up to 70% or more). In addition, through the invalidity of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Chinese companies may request a stay of court proceedings and a reduction of litigation costs, or they may force patentees to license them at a more reasonable price to reach a settlement.
Chinese enterprises avoid designing infringing products because of the design and production of products. They need to ensure that participating products do not possess the design features contained in the patent claims of too many competitors. Avoiding trademark disputes involves searching for trademarks similar to those used in exhibiting products and avoiding Use trademarks that may cause confusion about similarities. Professional lawyers in the countries where the exhibition is located can provide the above assistance.
Avoiding trade secrets and copyright issues is relatively straightforward. This type of problem is caused by plagiarism, so avoiding employee plagiarism eliminates these risks.
The most important point is that Chinese enterprises should consult professional lawyers in the countries where the exhibition is located before participating in the exhibition to analyze and assess the intellectual property risks and take corresponding measures to minimize the risks. Enterprises must also formulate contingency plans, in the face of the rights of others, to apply for a temporary court injunction, the lawyers come forward immediately to deal with and reduce losses