[event]
On the first day of the opening of the 8th China International Building Trade Expo in 2003, the organizer of the Expo received official letters from a well-known decoration company in Zhejiang and a brand bathroom company in Germany. The two companies claimed that the products of more than a dozen exhibitors infringed their patent rights and asked the organizers to handle them properly. Otherwise, they will apply to the court for evidence preservation and enter the venue to detain the products of the accused infringing enterprises.
[definition]
Shanghai Huijin Law Firm, as the legal adviser of the organizer, was entrusted with full authority to handle this matter. Lawyers first asked the two companies to produce patent ownership documents, and the patent ownership documents produced by the two companies showed that their patents were all design patents. According to the provisions of the Patent Law, "after the design patent right is granted, no unit or individual may exploit its patent without the permission of the patentee, that is, it may not manufacture, sell or import its patented products for production and business purposes". Lawyers believe that the mere display of goods by exhibitors is a sales promise and an invitation to sell, which is not explicitly prohibited by the patent law. Once an exhibitor reaches an order with a customer at the exhibition, it is a sales act, which constitutes infringement on the patentee.
[processing]
In view of this, if the two companies are deadlocked with other companies, temporarily unable to sue other companies for infringement and let other companies speculate on their products, then the interests of the two companies will obviously be damaged, and other companies will not be able to sell their products at the exhibition, so they are in a dilemma. Therefore, lawyers suggested that the two companies invite the law enforcement department of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Office to come forward and negotiate with other companies to remove the products that may be infringed at the exhibition, and that the two companies would not pursue the responsibilities of other companies during the exhibition, so that things could be properly resolved and the exhibition ended successfully.
[Conclusion]
In the face of many patent disputes that have occurred, most enterprises obviously show problems such as insufficient preparation and lack of effective solutions. In the end, most of them pay patent royalties and lose some markets. This not only directly affects the sales of enterprise products and corporate image, but also sounds a safety alarm for the further survival and development of enterprises. For exhibition organizers, if they don't pay attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, they will often be embarrassed to stand in the dock with infringing enterprises. Lawyers suggest that enterprises should not only be "hard" on products, but also strengthen their awareness of independent intellectual property rights. Only in this way can they calmly deal with intellectual property disputes in the exhibition.
[information]
In 2003, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council issued the Provisions on Strengthening the Intellectual Property Protection System for Exhibitions. Exhibitors must ensure that all aspects do not infringe upon the rights of others. If there is a complaint about alleged infringement and the evidence is sufficient, the complained unit will have to withdraw the exhibits at the exhibition unless it can provide evidence to refute it.
The Regulations on the Management of Exhibits in the current rules and regulations on intellectual property protection in the Canton Fair put forward a rigid measure to protect rights: all exhibitors (enterprises) must make a written commitment to the conference that "all exhibits brought to the exhibition will never infringe intellectual property rights, and if found, they are willing to accept the disposal of the conference".