Keep Eyes on Patent Updates

Patent registration now will turn to focus on the patent itself in China, including the quality and the innovation items. Patent attorney Helen Duan addressed the patent updates in China, US and Europe.

In China, regarding the laser segment, Canon can be expected as the top patent holder, followed by Epson, Samsung, Brother and etc. In the inkjet segment, Canon also maintains the No.1 position for patent registration. However, Brother holds a number of patents in new, small innovations. Those patents don’t require a long registering period and can be issued in a short time. On the other hand, Helen also mentions that aftermarket companies in China have applied a growing number of patents. Print-Rite, as the example, has already gained more than 2,200 patents worldwide.

For the global hot legal issue, Canon’s dongle gear lawsuit, Helen revealed that one related US patent has connected to a series of patents in China. In the U.S., the first 337 complain broke out in 2006, involving Epson’s inkjet patent. Nearly100 337 investigations have been conducted so far, with 6 GEOs (general exclusion orders) decided.

Further, Ms. Duan pointed out that there are more cases related to the inkjet patents in Europe. Moreover, the patent wars are quite active in the region, as nearly one or two lawsuit will break out in a month. Ms. Duan predicts that Europe will see more and more patent lawsuits occur. Canon is also showing its commitment to protecting its intellectual property rights in Europe. The OEM has already filed more than 20 lawsuits and holds a wide range of patents covering various product categories, which, Ms. Duan finds out, is difficult for aftermarket companies to avoid. In addition, Ms. Duan suggestions that the market should be aware of and pay attention to Samsung’s warning letters published recently, so as to find out which patent they should be careful about.

Following Canon’s dongle gear lawsuits happened in tens of countries worldwide, Ms. Duan predicts that China and Poland markets will possibly be the next regions getting involved in the same cases.

At RT Imaging Summit Zhuhai @2014, Ms. Duan shares some key elements for the industry with more than 200 attendees:

• Respect intellectual property;
• Invest earlier on innovation;
• Do more analysis on OEMs’ patents;
• Keep eyes on patent updates.