 Big news that I predicted: Meizu and Qualcomm have settled their patent litigation, and Meizu has signed a 3G/4G patent license. The agreement resolves all of patent disputes between Qualcomm and Meizu in China, Germany, France, and the United States! This is good news for Qualcomm, for Meizu, and for China! Patent litigation in China works! See more at https://lnkd.in/d33EtZq
 For a PDF of the original article, see global_times_-_china_and_npes.pdf
For the online version, see http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1026067.shtml  China's Supreme People's Court China is considering implementing a national appellate court dedicated to IP rights. This is the next step in making China the innovation capital of the world. When the US established the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982, it led to stronger patent rights and greater innovation. This is an important step for the Middle Kingdom.
See Reuters article at http://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-ipr-idUSL1N1EC04Q. See also http://www.ecns.cn/business/2016/12-17/238045.shtml Great article from IAM with some quotes from my IAM Magazine (https://lnkd.in/dpQJ3se) article: https://lnkd.in/fw2J8RU
 The Beijing IP Court on December 8 awarded damages of 50,000,000 RMB ($7.2M USD) in a patent case. This included 41 million RMB in legal fees. This is one of the first cases after the new burden-shifting rules for damages. Largely due to this change, damages were not limited to statutory damages. This is the beginning of a new phase in patent damages in China. Importantly, the court also provided attorney fees calculated based on the necessity of hiring agents, difficulty of the case, and actual contribution of the lawyers. This was the first time the Beijing IP Court, established in November 2014, recognized the above three factors as the principles to judge attorney fees.  Chen Jinchuan, deputy director of the court, said they have been enhancing IP protection by greatly increasing compensation from rights violators, especially those committing bad faith and repetitive violations, so that the cost of IP infringement will no longer be low. "The market is the best frame of reference to determine the value of IPs," he said.
The technology in suit related to USBkeys distributed by banks to customers for security. See the Chinese government's release: http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInformation/BeijingNewsUpdate/t1461670.htm  Just the next step in the avalanche of high-tech patent litigation in China. And as for the question of whether or Chinese courts will actually issue an injunction against a large foreign tech company... the answer is yes. I will post more information about this case on my blog within the next few days. Normally I would be able to do so immediately but IPBC starts tomorrow here in Shanghai. The most important quote is as follows: IN a first-instance decision, the Intermediate People’s Court of Fuzhou is said to have ordered Tianjin Samsung Communication Technology Co to stop the production and sale of four infringing handset models, and pay damages of 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) to the plaintiff, Fujian ETIM Information & Technology Co.  I am based in Shanghai and will be at IPBC and in town all week. Please come say hello!
If you wish to contact me, my email is [email protected] or [email protected]. Also, my Chinese mobile number is +86 188 1132 0550 and my US mobile number is +1 713 498 6047. I can receive calls and SMS/texts on both phones. Finally, my WeChat ID is ErickRobinson and my QR code is to the right. I look forward to meeting everyone and discussing Chinese patents, licensing, and litigation! Warm regards, Erick  The Financial Times has an excellent article detailing China's latest IP accomplishment: setting a world record for annual patent filings. The Middle Kingdom saw over 1 million patent applications in 2015. In fact, according to WIPO statistics, in 2015 SIPO received 1,101,864 applications, making up approximately 40% of the global total -- and more than the next three countries (the US, Japan, and S. Korea) combined.  Tom Mitchell's article has analysis from some of the leading experts in the Chinese patent world, including your truly. I invite you to check it out here: https://www.ft.com/content/4b6a9820-b210-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1  China IPR Blog: SEP Litigation and Licensing in China: Are There New Voices in the Room?11/16/2016  Another great post by a fellow China IP blogger. This time, it was Mark Allen Cohen of the China IPR blog delivering an excellent summary of the status of SEP issues in China. As Mark points out, things are looking up in the Middle Kingdom. Please check out his post here:
https://chinaipr.com/2016/11/06/sep-litigation-and-licensing-in-china-are-there-new-voices-in-the-room/?blogsub=confirmed#blog_subscription-3  My fellow China-blogger, Dan Harris of the China Law Blog, posted an insightful article on increasing foreigners' use of China as a patent litigation forum. He explains how quickly patent cases move in China, how the courts have evolved rapidly, and how an injunction in China can turn into a worldwide injunction.
Perhaps most importantly, Dan notes that the courts in China are fair, and that filing a patent case against a Chinese entity is not only possible, but likely to yield a just result (so long as the foreign entity acts reasonably and according to Chinese culture and law. This is a brief, but insightful article, and I encourage all of my readers to take a look.  Gene Quinn at IPWatchdog is a friend of mine and he always does a great job at covering patent issues, especially the decline of patent rights in the US over the last few years. Yesterday, he and Steve Brachmann penned an excellent article on the increasing importance of China as a forum for patent litigation.
As they conclude: "If these patent granting and litigation trends continue, we could be left with the rather mind-numbing conclusion that China, a country ruled by a communist government, has a more robust innovation protection regime than the United States, an ostensibly capitalist country that doesn’t seem to see the virtue in protecting the rights of innovators." See the full article here: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/11/10/china-increasingly-preferred-venue-patent-litigation/id=74585/
 Here is a link to the IAM article: http://www.iam-media.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=cdfe23cc-d26c-411e-9766-a6e87a6d0fbf. Click the image to the left for a PDF.
 IP Watchdog has a good post on Qualcomm and its patent fight(s) with Meizu, the Chinese smartphone company.
I do wonder why Qualcomm went to the ITC, Germany, and France, though. It appears little is gained as the Chinese suit is cut and dry and should provide Qualcomm complete relief because Chinese patent law bans exports of infringing items and all of Meizu's phones are made in China. Plus, such possible overkill may add to the sense in China that Qualcomm is acting unfairly based on its market position. Now, I am not sympathetic to Meizu's actions. The Chinese antitrust authorities took two years investigating Qualcomm and carefully crafting a settlement that they believed was fair to domestic smartphone makers. This settlement gave Chinese handset companies far and away the best deal from Qualcomm both in terms of the royalty rates and the base from which the rate is calculated. Plus, all of the other Chinese smartphone makers signed the same deal with Qualcomm that has been rejected by Meizu (Vivo and Oppo signed only weeks after Qualcomm's suits against Meizu). Indeed, Qualcomm has been chopped off at the knees in China and Meizu still wants more. This does not seem very fair. That said, China does not have to be "fair" to anyone but itself. It is a huge market (the smartphone market is now larger than the rest of the world combined) that cannot be ignored. And yes, it is extremely nationalistic. The government wants to protect its businesses and its people. The rules in China are not complicated, though. Be a friend to China, and you get to participate. And that is what worries me about Qualcomm going after Meizu in the US ITC, Germany, and France. These actions may seem like unnecessary bullying to the Chinese government and antitrust agencies. That could be a serious strategic mistake for Qualcomm, especially given that (at least to my knowledge) Meizu is not currently selling phones in the US, Germany , or France. My advice would have been to heed the Beatles and Let It Be. Let the Chinese litigation work its way through. It moves at light speed anyway and Qualcomm will surely win. Or at least it would have before appearing to become a bully. Again, I don't have a dog in this fight, but poking China (or Chinese companies) in the eye is never a smart move. Is there something I am missing?  Today I ran across a video of my presentation on patent litigation in China from the IIPLA conference on June 7, 2016. Although I am always horrified to see myself on video, this does allow my readers to see how I view the advantages of Chinese patent litigation. Note that this is five months old, which is like 5 years in Chinese patent litigation time. The law has continued to evolve for the better, and the courts continue to court foreign patentees to use the Chinese enforcement system that I believe is currently the most important in the world.
The video is available at this link or by clicking the image above. Note that the PowerPoint that I am referring to throughout the presentation is not shown during the video, so have made it available for download here. Please let me know what you think.  The World Intellectual Property Organization has reportedly upgraded its technology, creating an intelligent automatic translation tool which can better help people read patent applications from China. It's said to be an upgraded version of "WIPO Translate," which can reportedly adjust the word order to make the translation results more like English. See more here.
|
Erick Robinson's Blogs:
Litigation Funding Blog Patent Litigation Blog Trade Secret Blog PTAB Blog China Patent Blog AI Law Blog 
Welcome to the China Patent Blog by Erick Robinson. Erick Robinson's China Patent Blog discusses China's patent system and China's surprisingly effective procedures for enforcing patents. China is leading the world in growth in many areas. Patents are among them. So come along with Erick Robinson while he provides a map to the complicated and mysterious world of patents and patent litigation in China.
AuthorErick Robinson is an experienced American trial lawyer and U.S. patent attorney formerly based in Beijing and now based in Texas. He is a Patent Litigation Partner and Co-Chair of the Patent Trial & Appeal Board Practice at Brown Rudnick LLP, where he manages patent litigation, licensing, and prosecution in China and the US.
Categories
All
Archives
March 2025
Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions at ChinaPatentBlog.com are my own as of the time of posting, have not been vetted with my firm or its clients, and do not necessarily represent the positions of the firm, its lawyers, or any of its clients. None of these posts is intended as legal advice and if you need a lawyer, you should hire one. Nothing in this blog creates an attorney-client relationship. If you make a comment on the post, the comment will become public and beyond your control to change or remove it. |
RSS Feed