How to prevent patent infringement disputes from occurring

Patents are a protective measure for patent holders by the state. Sometimes, two people develop the same thing without knowing each other, and patent infringement disputes arise. So how do we prevent patent infringement disputes? What happened? The editor of Legal Savior Network has compiled the following content to answer your questions. I hope it will be helpful to you.

How to prevent patent infringement disputes

1. Establish an early warning mechanism to prevent problems in the bud

First, conduct a patent search during the product development period. "Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles." In order to avoid the risk of litigation, companies should conduct patent searches during the product development period to understand the patent status of the industry and the products they are developing, to avoid falling into the disadvantageous position of infringing other people's patents during the research and development period, and at the same time, it can save product development time. and development costs.

Second, avoid infringement through patent avoidance design. During the product development process, if it is discovered that the product being developed overlaps with the patents of others and may infringe other people's intellectual property rights, you can study international trade rules, domestic and foreign laws and regulations related to intellectual property rights, as well as requests for other people's patents and Instructions for improving one's own products to avoid infringement is usually called "patent avoidance design." For example, a few years ago, a power tool company in Changzhou, Jiangsu was accused by Bosch of infringing the design of its products. The Chinese company organized professionals to study the relevant laws of the European Union and Germany and the company's patent rights, and finally found that as long as the product was After the operating buttons are changed from multiple to one, the structure and shape of the product are changed, thereby avoiding infringement.

Third, establish an early warning mechanism to "prepare for rainy days."

It is very necessary to establish an early warning mechanism and strive to make response plans in a short time. Generally speaking, multinational companies usually conduct a lot of research activities in the early stage, conduct it on radio and newspapers, test the other party's reaction, and then adopt methods such as negotiation, issuing lawyer's letters, etc., and finally litigation. Enterprises face patent litigation problems for two reasons: First, our development has affected the survival space of competitors (for example, SigmaTel occupies more than 70% of the global MP3 player chip market, and customers include Innovation, Samsung, Dell , Sony, Toshiba, Gateway, Fu*tong, etc., but SigmaTe's market in China is not ideal, among which SigmaTe's domestic market share reaches more than 45%); second, we have infringed someone else’s intellectual propertyright. This is a precursor problem.

2. Seek reconciliation and strive for a win-win situation

Reconciliation is also a path for enterprises to choose to solve problems. Usually, the courts are nothing more than a means for enterprises to compete for the market and obtain benefits. What the other party really wants is to gain more leverage in negotiations through litigation in order to obtain higher royalties, or to squeeze out competitors through litigation. Therefore, companies should first find out the other party’s true intentions before negotiating with the other party: If the other party’s purpose is to compete for the market and limit the other party’s production scale through patents, the company can adopt patent cooperation methods, including technology cross-licensing and patent exchanges. Reach a settlement through exchange; if the other party wants royalties, you should seize the opportunity to negotiate and promote settlement. In this way, for the right holder, the patent rights are protected and considerable royalties can be collected, thus achieving a win-win effect. For users, paying royalties not only avoids the bad reputation of "infringement", but also restores the reputation of the company, and can continue to use the rights holder's patents to obtain their own benefits. But a settlement comes with conditions. The first is appropriate concessions or preferential conditions, such as production process adjustments, preferential cooperation conditions, payment of patent royalties, etc.; the second is the success rate of the plaintiff in winning the case; the third is whether the defendant has leverage for settlement (such as cross-licensing) patent, evidence proving the invalidity of the plaintiff’s patent, etc.).

my country's patent grant follows the first-to-file principle. The first person to apply for the same patent obtains the patent right. Therefore, if the inventor's invention and creation does not apply for a patent in time, then If someone else files a patent application for the inventor's labor results first, the inventor's labor results will not be usable. The above is the entire content of this article. If you still have questions, you are welcome to go to the Legal Savior Network for online legal consultation.