The main reason is that China's exports to the United States are mainly labor-intensive processed products, mainly including textiles, clothing, shoes, toys, household appliances, bags and so on. One of the reasons why China occupies the American market in these commodities is that the newly industrialized countries have gradually moved the production base of these products to China in the process of changing their economic structure from producing labor-intensive industrial manufactured goods to producing capital-intensive and technology-intensive industrial manufactured goods. As the largest supplier of cheap labor in the world, China has a comparative advantage in these commodities. However, most of these manufactured goods exported to the United States are products that lack independent intellectual property rights and are produced by imitation or OEM. It is easy for American intellectual property rights holders to sue the US International Trade Commission on the grounds of infringement of intellectual property rights and unfair competition according to Article 337 of the Tariff Law. On the one hand, these accusations will affect the export of China enterprises to the US market and expand market share; On the other hand, American domestic enterprises can constantly use Section 337 as a relatively hidden non-tariff barrier to attack China's competitors.
In view of the above situation, domestic enterprises can protect their own interests and avoid losses from the following aspects:
1. Improve the knowledge and understanding of "Article 337" and prevent risks.
Export enterprises should avoid infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, especially foreign trade enterprises that export by OEM or ODM, and should pay attention to documents that prove whether the foreign investors who place orders have the rights of trademarks, patents, copyrights and other products. If a foreign investor is neither a right holder nor a proper authorization certificate, he should consider the legal risks and make a clause in the contract stipulating that the foreign investor should be responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights and compensate for his own losses.
2. Once involved, we should respond positively in time.
When sued by American manufacturers, China enterprises should respond positively in time. Enterprises can entrust law firms with expertise in trademarks and patents to actively collect evidence, participate in responding to lawsuits and actively defend themselves, such as proving that the other party's intellectual property rights are invalid, so as to win the case.
Seek reconciliation
In order to avoid losing the American market, we can consider paying compensation to reach a settlement with American enterprises when necessary.