IPR Protection
4 Things You Must Know about IP Protection in China
There are many things that businesses need to know before they start operating in China, and IP protection is one of them. It’s particularly important to be aware of these things if you’re doing business in the Chinese market—or any emerging market, really. Here are four things you need to know about IP protection in China that could help save your business down the road.
1) Don’t forget you are a foreigner
Protecting your intellectual property rights (IPR) can be a tricky process in any country. It’s even more complex when dealing with a foreign jurisdiction like China, which has its own set of laws and customs that are different from what you may be used to. While no one likes to think they might ever need to use IP protection methods, these can be an important asset if you do start to experience problems. However, before seeking legal help or going after someone for infringing on your IPR, remember that many IP cases fail because companies make basic mistakes; it pays to know some of them before taking action. For example: Don’t forget you are a foreigner – While Chinese laws should protect you against infringement, don’t assume that they will.
Remember that there is always a chance that local law enforcement will not support you, so it’s important to have backup plans in place. Remember who owns what – In China, registered trademarks are owned by their registrant rather than being assigned based on where products are sold. This is opposite of most countries and means you could end up losing ownership over your trademark simply by not registering it properly. Use multiple forms of IP protection – Just as businesses in China often use multiple locations for manufacturing facilities and offices, they also tend to rely on multiple forms of IP protection such as patents, trademarks and copyrights.
2) The first step – register your trademark in China
To fully protect your intellectual property (IP) rights, you need to register for trademark protection in China. There are three ways to do so: through a representative, through an agent, or directly at a Chinese national or regional trademark office. Registering directly at a Chinese national or regional trademark office is fastest and cheapest. However, if you don’t speak fluent Mandarin, you will likely want to use an agent instead. The best agents have years of experience with trademarks in China and can help guide you through all of the paperwork necessary to file your application successfully.
Once you have registered your trademark, be sure to maintain it by filing periodic renewal applications before expiration. Failing to renew could mean losing all legal protections afforded by registration—and that includes preventing others from registering a similar mark. If someone else does register a similar mark after yours has expired, they can legally block any attempt by you or anyone else to register it again in future. This process is called trademark squatting and it happens more often than many people realize.
The most common type of copyright protection is through registration with CIPA (China Intellectual Property Office). This will ensure your work enjoys legal protection.
A trademark can be registered with SAIC (State Administration for Industry & Commerce) or SIPO (State Intellectual Property Office) after you have completed examination and approval procedures. In addition to providing exclusive rights for your trademark, it also provides you with rights over its use in court if necessary. The most important thing when registering a trademark is making sure it has not been registered by another party first; otherwise you may face difficulties if you want to register it later on.
3) How do I protect my brand?
In your work, you are likely to produce some inventions and creations. If you have not registered them through copyright registration or patent registration with competent departments, you cannot enjoy their legal protection. So when creating something new, make sure it is intellectual property before releasing it to other parties for commercialization. This will enable you to set up a solid foundation for protecting your rights and interests.
Try to incorporate an effective copyright notice on all original works: Copyright is defined as a form of personal ownership that protects original works of authorship including literary, architectural and artistic works from being used by others without permission or compensation.
4) What to do if IP disputes arise?
After registering (or not), you should definitely keep your records – business contracts and anything else that may be needed later on when trying to prove your rights. Do not destroy anything! Business contracts between you and your distributor can be some of these important documents. Check with a local attorney before entering into such agreements as there are standard clauses that often appear in them. These clauses can have negative impacts on protecting your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China.
If a dispute does arise, there are various ways to resolve it. One is through your local courts or trade organizations and those abroad if necessary. There are lots of examples, such as fair hearing before all members of Beijing Arbitration Commission and seek help from other departments (e.g., State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and National Copyright Administration). As an alternative, many foreign companies can solve their problems by going to local technology offices for consultation at any time. If you still have no solution after consultations with them, you may sue an infringer directly by yourself or apply for administrative assistance from SIPO. The most important thing is to make every effort when protecting your IPRs in China as once lost there is often no chance of recovering them again.
It’s always better to take precautions before it’s too late, such as finding a reliable production facility with their own IP protection zone. Shield Works is one of them. The facility also provides different types of IP protection services via the partnership with a leading IP industry expert in China. Feel free to contact us if interested in more!
IP Protection in China: 7 Steps to Take to Protect Your Intellectual Property
You’ve come up with a great idea for a product or a service, and you’re sure it’ll make a big splash in the market. You spend a lot of time developing it and are ready to unveil it only to discover that someone has beaten you to the punch. Unless you’ve invested in some kind of IP protection, there isn’t much you can do in response.
IP protection in China takes many forms, such as patenting or trademarking your property. The main reason to do so is to prevent other people from using your branding or claiming your product as their own.
Here are seven steps you can take to protect intellectual property in China and prevent idea theft.
1. Assess Risks vs Benefits
The very first step is to understand IP laws in China and assess your overall risk. For example, the Copyright Law of China considers the publication of a copyright owner’s work without permission as infringement. Authorities may impose fines and confiscate any illegal income as a result.
If you intend to do business in China, only transfer over IPs that are absolutely required. Retain newer designs and prototypes in your origin country to minimize the risk of theft.
Hire a qualified IP lawyer to review the terms and conditions of anything you license. Try to negotiate favorable royalty rates and retain ownership of any improvements made in the country.
2. Register Your IP in China
There is no such thing as an international copyright option for your intellectual property. If you’ve invested in copyright inside the United States, then it’s only good inside the United States. As such, those looking to move their IPs into China will need to register them there.
Without a trademark in China, there is little your company can do to prevent counterfeiting. Luckily, there is such thing as an international trademark you can apply for. However, a particular country will have to agree to register it after you apply through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Keep in mind that trademarks must be used exactly in the way that you registered them. That means using the same logo and text as it was registered.
3. Use a Contract Manufacturer
Utilizing product assembly in China can reduce costs, improve your time to market, and increase overall customer satisfaction. However, you have to be careful who you choose to do your manufacturing.
A contract manufacturer doesn’t do the design of your products. They get the design files, validate them, and do the manufacturing. There’s little risk of them taking your ideas and running with them.
Meanwhile, a manufacturer who is in the same business as your company should be considered a competitor and treated as such. Don’t give them anything they can use for their own profit.
4. Sign an NDA
An additional measure you can take when dealing with a manufacturer is to have them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). An NDA is a binding contract that prevents the sharing of certain information with other parties. It also helps to distinguish what can be shared so the manufacturer can work more freely within the set boundaries.
Since an NDA is a civil contract, it doesn’t violate the law as with copyright and trademark violations. However, it does open up the other party to lawsuits from their employer and risks financial damage. As such, an NDA is an important method of intellectual property protection.
5. Identify and Categorize Your IP Assets
Moving your business into China doesn’t mean you need to register every single one of your intellectual properties. If you’re not using them, then it’ll only be a waste of time and money.
Identify your IP assets and categorize them according to the level of risk and value. Provide sufficient protection within your company and task your management team with protecting your company’s IP. Limit employee access to those who absolutely need it.
Two of the most important assets to protect are your designs and any trade secrets. If your product has a unique visual appearance, you can register the design. Trade secrets are protected throughout the use of NDAs or other written agreements.
6. Engage in Business Carefully
Even if you’ve obtained copyright, trademarked your product, and had your manufacturer sign an NDA, you still need to tread carefully. All suppliers, vendors, distributors, and so on are potential competitors.
It may be more convenient to have all your processes done under the same roof, but it also means giving them more power over your end product.
Design your manufacturing process to protect your IP. For example, you can manufacture all the different components at separate OEMs and assemble them back home at a trusted facility.
If you have a facility in China, do not allow visitors to record or document anything they see or hear.
7. Monitor for Infringement
There’s no point in having IP protection in China if you don’t keep an eye out for instances of infringement. Monitoring an IP overseas can prove challenging, especially if your company operates from the United States.
One way to monitor for trademark infringement is with an online search. Not only should you keep an eye out for anything similar to your trademark, but you can also find anything that may be confused for it. Google allows you to search for similar images, as well.
While you’re there, set up a Google alert for your trademark. Once done, you’ll get email notification reports whenever a new search result pops up using your trademark.
IP Protection in China Made Simple
Protecting your company’s intellectual properties is an important part of running a business in any country. IP protection in China is no different. Even if you’re only manufacturing certain products overseas, IP theft can cost your company a significant amount of time and money.
If you need a manufacturing company you can trust in the area, look no further. Shield Works is British-owned and managed in the heart of Zhuhai city. Contact us to learn more about our services and how we can help your business.
3 Tips for Protecting Your Intellectual Property in China
Many big corporations you can think of paid their dues when they first moved their manufacturing to China, a country that just had opened up to the modern world while blessed with a consumers market of 1.4 billion people. The dues included infringement on their IP rights. IP, back in the days, was still a very novel concept to the people in this country and consequently laws regarding its protection was not at all in place. Companies have learned the lesson the hard way by losing billions of dollars over knockoffs sold in a local market or some cheap commodities of bad quality in disguise of your brand with confusing spellings.
But the perks of manufacturing in China are undisputedly still very tempting compared with the risk of your IPR being violated. Does it mean it’s an either-or situation?
Not necessarily. Time has changed. China has changed. 40 years of economic development have made its mark on the progress of IPR protection, especially after China joined WTO with the promise of cracking down on IPR abuse. Despite the encouraging establishment of its IPR protection system, unfortunately, loopholes are seen and risks exist. Some self-help will still be needed on your end to protect your IPR when manufacturing in China.
Make good use of the system
The first thing you want to do is make sure you use a PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) country. This means that instead of having to file one application at home and then a separate application abroad, your patent will be applied for in an international system that covers all major countries including China. This eliminates additional costs when you are trying to secure patents abroad. In addition, it also improves your chances of being approved because one examiner reviews it rather than multiple examiners separately examining different applications in different countries.
Also just like in your native country, registration of your IP, including your trademarks and patents, is the legal foundation of protecting your IPR. Unlike many countries, China has adopted a file-to-file system as opposed to as a first-to-use system. So do it before you even start manufacturing there. China Trademark Office is not the only place you’ll need to register with. Don’t forget Chinese Customs. Your registration there will serve as the base for them to determine infringement and effectively block its export with adequate information provided, such as manufacturers and ports.
Keep a watchful eye
To make sure you understand what your intellectual property is—you may have a patent, trademark, or copyright without even realizing it. If you want to move forward with manufacturing in China, contact your lawyer to find out which of your pieces of intellectual property will be at risk and how you can protect them; having a legal agreement in place before you begin production will give you much more leverage than scrambling afterward.
Some extra help can be needed in terms of detecting possible infringement. Alibaba/Taobao, as the biggest e-commerce platform in China serving 1.4 billion people, cannot spare the chance of selling infringing products as much as they try. But correspondingly they have established takedown procedures in case you see anything abusing your IPR. If you are new to the market, you can even hire brand monitor service to help you monitor the internet for any possible infringement or even assist in takedowns.
Choose A Good Manufacturer
If you’re in China, finding a good manufacturer is going to be one of your primary challenges. Most manufacturers are new at dealing with IP issues, so they might not be receptive to your demands. In these cases, it’s probably best to shop elsewhere. This might not always be possible or desirable, but if you do have options it’s worth exploring them before deciding on a manufacturer. Once you find a reliable partner and have developed a working relationship with them, create an IPR protection plan that works for both of you.
Shield Works partners with Innopat a leading Zhuhai based IP industry expert to provide our clients with clear no-nonsense advice and IP protection services. We also have a seamlessly designed IP Protection Zone to ensure all your intellectual properties stay in our facility. What happens at SW, stays at SW.
Please feel free to send an inquiry today, should you have any questions.
Why Intellectual Property Protection is Important
Your business’s intellectual property (IP) is essential to your company. You invest a lot of money and resources in your employees and the assets of the business and their resulting creations. The biggest asset you have as a business is the mindset of your talent base, which holds significant business value for many years down the line.
Once your IP is open to the public, it’s easy for other people to copy it. This is why businesses should take intellectual property protection seriously. While you’re not obligated to consider the safety of your business’s IP, it could save you thousands of dollars and a significant amount of time in the future.
Unfortunately, most start-ups and mid-sized businesses often take IP protection for granted. Overlooking this aspect of your business will lead to significant regrets later.
Are you still unconvinced about the importance of intellectual property protection? Read below to understand more about intellectual property protection and why it is important:
What Is Intellectual Property?
IP refers to intangible assets such as ideas that are legally protected and owned by an individual or a company. The property is protected from external use and implementation without permission. An intangible asset is referred to as a non-physical asset that is owned by a person or a business.
The main concept behind intellectual property is that certain products of the human intellect should be legally protected and owned in the same way as physical properties. Most countries with developed economies have strict rules to protect these forms of property.
There are several types of intellectual property, including:
- Trade secrets
- Franchises
- Trademarks
- Copyrights
- Patents
Intellectual property is owned by the creator of the work, or by an individual deemed the owner. However, this can differ in certain circumstances where different types of intellectual property ownership are determined differently.
For example, if an idea comes from an employer, they become the owners of that IP. However, if it comes from an employee under contract, it can be registered under the employer. Keep in mind that IP ownership is transferable from one individual to another.
It Protects Your Exclusive Rights
IP protection gives your business exclusive rights within the jurisdiction where it’s registered. This means you will have the right to your design, brand name, and invention. The good news is that other people can’t directly benefit from your IP or reap any financial benefits from counterfeits of your brand.
IP protection also helps you protect your business from reputational damage, often caused by malicious people producing substandard products in your name. This gives your business the competitive edge it needs to compete with even major brands on the market.
It Prevents Other People from Using Your Goodwill and Branding
Crafting, protecting, and maintaining a great online and offline brand is a costly endeavor for most companies. Therefore, it’s essential to take the right steps to protect your brand and ensure it’s not at risk. Make sure you get started immediately when establishing your brand.
Most businesses often make the mistake of waiting until they have a larger budget to put in place IP protection. This is a mistake that could cost you thousands of dollars. This is because most of these businesses often forget about the process until someone else steals their IP.
The first step towards protecting your intellectual property is registering it. Ensure you register your trademark, invention, or design to protect your company’s unique identifiers. Through this, you will be taking active steps towards protecting your business’s distinct personality and discouraging other individuals from using it.
As such, if anyone tries to use your business’s registered IP, they will likely be infringing on your rights. This means you can sue them and claim intellectual property infringement.
Therefore, you can defend your company’s rights to use the IP and take the other party to court. You can even receive damages from the infringing party or a percentage of the profits they made in the infringement process.
It Adds Value to Your Property
Are you looking to stay ahead of the curve in the assembly and manufacturing industry? Then obtaining your IP rights is the first step to doing so. Securing your IP rights will proactively increase your company’s market share.
It can also help you win your customers’ loyalty by keeping them loyal to your brand. Your company logo, name, and the products or services you offer your clients are fundamental parts of your branding. This is what sets you apart from your competitors, making your business stand out.
Therefore, it’s essential to make sure your business uses these intangible assets to get ahead of the game by protecting them. Different intellectual properties and creations can be protected in varying ways. With the right advisors and team, it will be easy to efficiently protect your IP at each step of your business’s development stage.
Intellectual Property Protection Helps You Raise Money
Intellectual property protection can create a profit-generating asset for your company. This means you can raise money by selling your IP or licensing it.
When you own the intellectual property rights to a brand or a creation, you have the freedom to use it however you want. You can even transfer the rights to other companies or individuals. This can be an extra revenue stream for your business through earning royalties by licensing your IP or selling the rights to another individual.
Knowing how to fully take advantage of your IP is essential to protecting your IP. Some financial institutions highly regard IP rights, and they can be a form of security for numerous loans in some cases.
It Protects Business Growth
As a small business, it’s essential to protect your company’s unique services or products that you own. In some cases, competitors use other businesses’ success to take away a chunk of the market share. It results in reduced revenue and slow business growth.
Losing your market share early in the company’s development stage can be quite overwhelming and devastating. It’s also stressful and time-consuming to start chasing the guilty party if you don’t have any legal protection. This could result in losses and even business closure if not appropriately handled.
Keep in mind that no one else is responsible for checking if your IP has been infringed. You should always check to ensure that no one else in the market uses your assets to make a profit or discredit your brand. Even major companies have had to deal with IP infringement at some point in their development journey.
Protecting intellectual property is directly related to your business growth. It’s the only way to ensure that your business is protected throughout the development stages.
It Protects and Secures Your Business Ideas
When you have a unique and great idea for a service or product, there are always individuals who will try to duplicate and sell the idea as their own, making a profit in the process. Depending on your circumstances, you could use trademarks, copyrights, or patents to protect your ideas. All these are instrumental in covering different areas of intellectual property.
Without proper consent, IP protection can help you prevent your competitors or any other individual from making a profit from your ideas. This protection should apply to companies of all sizes.
We have all seen billion-dollar companies having their ideas infringed upon, which leads to costly lawsuits. A great example of this is the Samsung-Apple dispute about their smartphones.
IP Protection Is an Easy Process
While the intellectual property protection process may seem daunting, stressful, and time-consuming, it’s easier than most people think. Likewise, the time, effort, and resources you use to protect your IP are well worth it.
While it’s not feasible to protect the idea by itself, you can secure the processes and means by which you put your unique idea into operation. This is what you will protect using IP.
On the other hand, copyright doesn’t require any actual registration procedures. That’s because the protection is automatic and free. While copyright doesn’t protect your idea, it will cover how the concept is presented, for example, on flyers, websites, presentations, and brochures.
If you’re looking to protect your intellectual property by registering a design, applying for a patent, or trademark, you can do this through your local intellectual property office. You can do this on your own or with a solicitor.
Contact Us for Intellectual Property Protection Today
Do you have a company in China? If your company doesn’t file its patents, trademarks, or copyrights in China, the IP will have no formal protection. Contact us today at Shield Works for all your intellectual property protection needs in China.
We work with a top Zhuhai-based IP industry expert to offer our clients IP protection services to cover all their needs.
What is IPR Protection and How Does Shield Works Ensure This for Their Customers?
What is IPR and why is it a problem?
IPR stands for Intellectual Property Rights and here at Shield Works we make sure that this is protected at all costs. Here will explain why IPR is important. And how we have IP protection services to make sure your goods are protected from copy-cats.
It’s no secret that the key concern businesses have when considering whether to manufacture in China is the thought that their intellectual property (aka a lot of effort and hard work) will be stolen. A famous example of this was when Ford filed a lawsuit against the Chinese manufacturer JAC in 2012. For more details on this see the website referenced at the end of this blog.
However, as a British owned and managed company, we Shield Works are committed to protecting every aspect of your IP. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about the risk of copy-cat manufacturing. Because we provide an extensive range of services to ensure that your company maintains complete IPR.
How does IPR law work in china?
The laws follow that a company has no formal IP protection if it does not file its patents and trademarks in China.
A patent ‘registers a person’s invention and allows him or her to take legal action against any person who uses, makes, imports or sells that invention without permission’ (‘Patent’, Market Business News Glossary, 2019). Also, it is important to know that there are multiple types of patents. For example,design, inventions and utility model, copyrights and more.
How does Shield Works protect IPR?
In order to support you with full IP and patent protection, our team works in a way that is flexible to your requirements.
Shield Works partners with Innopat, a leading Zhuhai based IP industry expert. They are able to provide our clients with clear, no-nonsense advice and IP protection services. In addition, Innopat is a professional patent and trademark agency authorized by the National Intellectual Property Administration of the People’s Republic of China.
Since 2002, Innopat has been dedicated to the specialized practice of intellectual property law including patent, trademark and copyright law. The firm actively engages in the procurement, enforcement and litigation of intellectual property rights cooperating with foreign IP associates for international IP litigation and patent proceedings in every significant industrial country.
IP protection services we provide in Mainland China:
- Patent Application, Invalidation
- Patent Re-examination
- Public Opinion to Pending Patent Application
- Patent Bibliographic Change & Assignment
- Patent License & Assignment