Netac President Complains About Unequal Treatment Overseas Patents

Netac Technology, the first Chinese company that sued a U.S. company (Texas PNY Technologies)  for patent infringement in 2006, and which settled out of court, expects that it has protected its IPR in all important markets by 2015.

Cheng Xiao-hua, president of Netac Technology alleges that it often takes a Chinese firm much longer to obtain a patent overseas than it does for its foreign counterparts. The next quote of Cheng suggests that this is the fault of the overseas patent office that is examining the Chinese patents.
"Cheng said he is expecting a better climate for Chinese companies in applying for patents overseas, and a more "equal examination period and fairer treatment"."

About which patent office his is talking remains unclear. It would be interesting to see this backed up by some statistics. 

Read China Daily's Zhang Shiyi's article here.

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Peter Ollier interviews Netac's Vincent Zhong

Netac Technology was the first Chinese company that sued an American company, PNY Technologies of Texas, for patent infringement (USB flash memory). The two companies settled their patent dispute out of court in March, read more here.
Mr Peter Ollier interviewed Mr Vincent Zhong, vice-president of Netac Technologies about the dispute.

In the interview Mr Zhong tells that Netac Technology is litigating against a Taiwanese company that they accuse of breaching their Taiwanese patent.

Possible explanations for why Netac Technology is the IP avant garde of China is that this company is focusing more on R&D than on production and that two of its have worked for IP savvy Philips in Singapore.

Read Mr Ollier's article''Meet China's litigation pioneer' for Managing Intellectual Property here.

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Netac versus PNY settled out of court

Remember the Netac versus PNY case, read here? After two years of litigation, the patent infringement conflict between Shenzhen-based Netac Technology Co Ltd and Texas PNY Technologies was settled out of court. The Netac versus PNY case is seen as a milestone, because it could highlight a trend of Chinese companies suing overseas companies for the infringements of their intellectual property rights overseas.

Read the article by Jiang Jingjing of the China Daily here and .

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China's General Protecht Group Wins IPR Case in US

Li Yang of CCTV.com reports about several patent infringement disputes between US-based Leviton against Zhejiang Province-based General Protecht Group's US subsidiary General Protecht Group Inc. The lawsuits were filed April 2004 and only June 10, 2007 a US court came up with a 28 page-ruling (according to IPR.Gov.Cn) in favour of the Chinese company, "accepting the claim that its products (No. 6246558 patent right on ground fault circuit interrupters IP Dragon) are beyond the scope of Leviton's patents."

After being a defendant in the case in the US, General Protecht Group sued Leviton in 2006 before the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, which made a "decision of Property Preservation and Evidence Preservation in a patent infringement case between two electric companies. As a result, defendant Leviton Electric (Dongguan) Co Ltd has been prohibited from selling 50,000 products." Read more on the site of IPR.Gov.Cn here.

Li wrote that Tim Tingkang Xia, partner of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP intellectual property group and a registered patent attorney said:“The win is certainly a triumph for Chinese businesses. In international IPR disputes, Chinese companies should learn to use the law to protect themselves.” Read more here.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce the ruling was a so called Markman Order, or a claim construction report, where the judge determines what the claims mean as a matter of law, read more at the end of this article. General Protecht spent 200,000 US dollars on patent litigation, according to Li, so it is interesting to know whether it demanded and/or received damages.

Another Sino-American patent infringement lawsuit in the US is still pending. Read 'Shenzhen Netac Sues Texas PTY Technologies for Patent Infringement' here. I hope to get more information about this case soon.

It is great that these Chinese companies realise the value of protecting and enforcing their patents overseas. This might be a preview of things to come and can only be advantageous for the promotion of a culture of respect for IP within China, in a not too distant future.

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