Panel II: Enterprises' Global Patent Attack and Defense Strategy Under

2019/03/15

Panel II: Enterprises' Global Patent Attack and Defense Strategy Under "Strict Protection"
Chinas consensus on strict protection of intellectual property rights has attained an unprecedented level. In March 2015, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued the Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform of System and Mechanism and Accelerating the Implementation of Innovation-Driven Development Strategy, and proposed to implement the strict intellectual property protection system for the first time. Later, national leaders had mentioned several times the intellectual property protection on various occasions, and it had developed into a whole new climax in 2018. For instance, President Xi had proposed in his speech on November 5, 2018 to introduce a "punitive damages system" .
 
How to understand "strict protection"? Under the background of "strict protection", what are the changes in the refereeing ideas of intellectual property cases? How to formulate the strategy of protecting the rights of enterprises? These has become the particular concerns for companies. Based on this, the 9th China IP International Annual Forum specially set up panel II, with the theme of Enterprises' Global Patent Attack and Defense Strategy Under "Strict Protection", invited judiciary, academia and business figures to have an in-depth communication and discussion on this topic.
 
The panel was chaired by Cheng Yongshun, Director of Beijing Intellectual Property Institute. Song Jian, Deputy Inspector and Member of the Judicial Committee of Jiangsu Higher People's Court, Liu Ming, Intellectual Property Operations Supervisor of Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai, Zeng Minhui, Senior Partner of ACIP, Qi Hongtao, Partner of Advance China IP Law Office (ACIP), and Li Lu, Senior Manager of ACIP, all focused on the prediction of intellectual property rights in the context of "strict protection", corporate intellectual property rights management and strategy, corporate patent invalidation and defense strategy, and response skills on US 337 investigation and so on.
 
In the keynote speech, Song Jian pointed out that the connotation of strict protection is the firm protection of what should be protected, and no protection of what should not be protected, to balance the legal affairs and public policy. She believes that the determination of infringement and the calculation of reasonable compensation are the two poles of strict protection, and it is recommended to promote the formation of a trial mechanism with the participation of both parties in the litigation, and promote the growth of the independent and impartial third-party institutions on the basis of a litigation mechanism with a substantive confrontation. Furthermore, to attain intellectual property judicial protection policy through "judicial leadership, strict protection, classification policy, proportional coordination".
 
Liu Ming generously shared a set of scientific systems established by Gree Group in the management of intellectual property rights, as well as experience in patent and trademark rights protection. By specific cases, he introduced the rights protection strategies from discovering infringement to confirming infringement, fixing evidence, selecting means, and summarizing.
 
The two guests shared their views on "strict protection" from the perspective of the judiciary and the enterprise. Zeng Minhui, Qi Hongtao and Li Lu from ACIP have given suggestions for corporate intellectual property management and rights protection strategies from their own fields.
 
Zeng Minhui summarized the patent rights protection strategies via cases sharing. It is recommended that enterprises should pay more attention to intellectual property work, improve the quality of product research and development, and lay a solid foundation for the layout of high-value new patents; professional agents should be entrusted to improve the quality of application documents.
 
By sharing invalid patent cases and typical cases, Qi Hongtao expounded the enterprise patent invalidation attack and defense strategy under "strict protection". Its rich experience sharing, vivid case analysis, and guiding thoughts from shallow to deep had won the praises of the participants.
 
Li Lu introduced the skills and precautions of the company's response to the 337 investigation from the aspects of response strategy selection, cost control, evidence collection, and claims game.
 
After the keynote speeches, the speakers and the audience had a lively Q&A, and conducted one-on-one on-site diagnosis and consultation on the intellectual property status of the company.
 
This panel has won a positive response, which has certain guiding significance for the development of patent rights protection strategy for Chinese enterprises in the context of "strict protection" in the future.