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索赔10亿的专利侵权纠纷——专利对企业IPO的影响不容小觑

  • Categories:最新消息
  • Author:华讯知识产权
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  • Time of issue:2019-05-17 18:15
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(Summary description)今年3月4日,江苏通领科技股份有限公司诉公牛集团专利侵权纠纷在南京市中级人民法院开庭审理,原告通领公司主张的赔偿金额高达近10亿元,其高额的赔偿请求引发了广泛的关注,10亿元数额也几乎是公牛集团一整年的净利润。公牛集团在国内插座行业具有很高的市场占有率,而通领公司是一个外向型的出口企业,曾经赢得多起美国专利诉讼,具有很强专利保护意识。该案起诉的时间点,也引起媒体的揣测。去年10月,公牛集团披露招股

索赔10亿的专利侵权纠纷——专利对企业IPO的影响不容小觑

(Summary description)今年3月4日,江苏通领科技股份有限公司诉公牛集团专利侵权纠纷在南京市中级人民法院开庭审理,原告通领公司主张的赔偿金额高达近10亿元,其高额的赔偿请求引发了广泛的关注,10亿元数额也几乎是公牛集团一整年的净利润。公牛集团在国内插座行业具有很高的市场占有率,而通领公司是一个外向型的出口企业,曾经赢得多起美国专利诉讼,具有很强专利保护意识。该案起诉的时间点,也引起媒体的揣测。去年10月,公牛集团披露招股

  • Categories:最新消息
  • Author:华讯知识产权
  • Origin:
  • Time of issue:2019-05-17 18:15
  • Views:
Information

今年3月4日,江苏通领科技股份有限公司诉公牛集团专利侵权纠纷在南京市中级人民法院开庭审理,原告通领公司主张的赔偿金额高达近10亿元,其高额的赔偿请求引发了广泛的关注,10亿元数额也几乎是公牛集团一整年的净利润。公牛集团在国内插座行业具有很高的市场占有率,而通领公司是一个外向型的出口企业,曾经赢得多起美国专利诉讼,具有很强专利保护意识。该案起诉的时间点,也引起媒体的揣测。去年10月,公牛集团披露招股书,拟公开发行不超过6000万股,拟募资48.87亿元,公牛集团IPO的关键时刻遭到的专利侵权诉讼,可能会给其上市进程带来一定的影响。

 

根据国家知识产权局有关调查,IPO企业知识产权问题中涉及专利方面的问题占比49%,尤其是在科创版和创业板上市的企业,由于其发展定位高科技、成长型等方向,而专利数量及质量被认为是上市成功的重要衡量标准。在以往的IPO案例中,一些企业由于受到专利问题的影响止步IPO,失去融资的机会。

 

一、专利权属不明确

吉林省西点药业科技发展股份有限公司于2012年准备IPO上市,其招股说明书显示,西点药业欲通过A股在上海证券交易所挂牌上市,拟发行不超过1805万股。在报告期内,其核心产品“可同”存在使用他人专利权的情况。西点药业与江苏万特制药有限公司等企业之间存在错综复杂的专利许可关系,若西点药业得不到专利许可,不再享有该专利使用权,则可能为公司的生产经营带来很大风险。

西点药业被否的原因中涉及到了商业贿赂防范、经销模式等多个方面,专利授权使用的问题,被相关的监管层多次提出。对于创新型企业来说,在上市之前应对其知识产权等无形资产进行整理,明确核心专利的权属关系。

专利权属不明的另外两种情形是:一、公司设立时发起人或股东以专利权出资或者公司受让他人的专利权,但尚未完成专利变更登记手续,这时应尽快完成变更登记手续,取得专利权证书;二、专利可能涉及职务发明创造,比如,股东作出资的专利或者受让他人的专利有可能属于职务发明创造,针对这种情形,应当要求出资者、转让人与原单位就专利权的归属签署确认函,并要求出资者、转让人作出相关书面承诺。

 

二、专利纠纷不能有效处理

广州方邦电子股份有限公司计划2018年在创业板上市,拟募集资金4.33亿元,公司主营业务是研发、生产及销售电子薄膜材料产品。其招股书披露:2000年方邦电子开发出电磁屏蔽膜,并于2012年子成功开发出具有专利权的电磁屏蔽膜产品。2017年,方邦电子被竞争对手日本拓自达起诉专利侵权,涉及的专利是“印刷布线板用屏蔽膜”,侵权损害赔偿及合理费用共计9272万元,而方邦电子2017年上半年的扣非净利润只有3747万元,因此有关分析认为,方邦电子的盈利能力可能是其IPO被否的重要原因,除了经营方面,核心专利相关的诉讼纠纷也是其上市的绊脚石。

《首次公开发行股票并上市管理办法》在 “规范运行”、“财务与会计”等方面都对企业提出严格要求,发行人不存在重大偿债风险,不存在影响持续经营的担保、诉讼以及仲裁等重大或有事项,专利诉讼往往诉讼标的额较大,最终的赔偿数额不明确,这给发行人带来很大的偿债风险。对于已产生的专利诉讼,可采取双方协商或者邀请第三方参与调解等办法,与起诉人达成和解,达成撤诉方案。如果起诉人不撤诉,需要就诉讼案件是否会对公司造成重大不利影响进行论证。可以通过法律专业机构论证专利侵权成立的可能性较小,或者论证即使最终认定侵权,赔偿数额不会给公司财务状况造成较大影响,或者论证专利纠纷仅涉及公司部分次要产品,对公司生产经营无实质影响。

三、专利信息披露不准确

2010年1月,证监会创业板发行审核委员会审核通过了苏州恒久光电科技股份有限公司的IPO申请。招股说明书披露,该公司共计拥有5 项专利,并列明了这5 项已授权专利的信息。但是苏州恒久计划在当年3月19日登陆创业板前,被指出这5 项专利均因未缴年费而被终止。由于国家知识产权局网站公布的专利法律状态与招股说明书、申报文件中所列示的专利情况不一致,证监会要求相关机构就该公司的专利问题进行核查,公司股票被暂缓上市。2010年6月,创业板发行审核委员会重新审核了苏州恒久的IPO申请,最终IPO申请被撤销,证监会要求苏州恒久按照发行价并加算银行同期存款利息将申购款返还证券持有人。

在判断申报文件披露信息是否存在与事实不符的情况时,对企业生产经营影响较大的专利权、商标权等知识产权是证监会审查的重点。企业IPO专利相关信息披露主要包括:专利权权属情况,专利权许可,专利权纠纷,专利权转让,专利数量等信息(创业板适用),专利权变化情况以及主要影响因素(创业板适用)等。

由于企业专利管理制度不规范、尽职调查不当等原因,往往出现:专利信息披露不真实、信息披露不准确、信息披露不完整、信息披露不规范。这都是企业在准备申报文件时需严格把控、谨慎对待的问题,必要时可以委托专业的知识产权服务公司进行调查。

 

四、其他专利相关问题

除上述内容以外,专利的使用和估值情况也是监管部门和投资者关注的重点问题,例如,北京金房暖通节能技术股份有限公司等公司被要求释明专利对主营业务的支持,北京煜邦电力技术股份有限公司等诸多公司被要求专利技术使用状况,中船重工汉光科技股份有限公司苏州宇邦新型材料股份有限公司购买专利定价不合理情况也被要求说明。

(引用:http://dy.163.com/v2/article/detail/E9E1F2PR0511BK66.html

 

无论是高科技企业还是传统产业领域,知识产权都是公司的核心竞争力。公司应提高知识产权保护意识,尤其是想在创业板、科创板上市中小企业,应注重加强对专利的有效性、稳定性以及诉讼纠纷的管理,为IPO之路扫清障碍。公牛集团面对的10亿专利侵权诉讼对其IPO会产生什么影响,目前还不明确,根据以往类似案件的审理过程来看,该案得到最终生效的法律判决,至少需要两年的时间。在此期间,公牛集团IPO申请会受到一定的约束。对于投资机构而言,该案也是重要的考量因素。

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Electronic

Electronic Arts pledges free use for five accessibility patents

Electronic Arts pledges free use for five accessibility patents Recently, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a patent pledge that gives other companies and developers free access to five of its current accessibility-related patents and technology. The company promised not to enforce against any party for infringing any of the listed patents. Instead, EA hopes to encourage “innovation” and build new features that make video games more inclusive on a much larger scale by opening up the patents.  Electronic Arts (EA) is an American video game company founded in 1982. The company owns many popular and famous games, such as The Sims, SimCity, Apex Legends, Madden NFL and FIFA. Each of the games has more than 30 or 50 million sales volume. Significantly, esports involves FIFA and Apex Legends into the event list. Apex Legends has up to 1 billion players, and it is so popular that it has a Switch version. Within the freely available patents, one of which grabs everyone’s attention -- Apex Legends’ ping system (patent No. US 11097189). The ping system in Apex Legends, which excellently allows players to make communication and teamwork quick and easy without hearing or speaking, has been praised both as an impressive alternative to voice chat and as a great accessibility feature for players with a variety of disabilities.  The other patents include the technology widely used in the FIFA and Madden NFL. The innovations can automatically detect and modify colors (patent No. US 10118097 and CN 107694092) and contrast ratios (patent No. US 10878540) to improve gamers’ visibility with colorblindness and low vision. Furthermore, one of the patents relates to personalized sound technology, helping players with hearing issues by modifying or creating music based on their preferences (patent No. US 10790919).   The code of the mentioned technology is published on EA’s GitHub, and it is open to all developers. Thus, the developers can use it or adapt it for their games without spending the costs to research. It is good that EA shares the patents for free use and aims to create an accessibility-increased gaming environment for players. However, it is not “unconditional” to use the listed patents. In the pledge, EA mentioned that it may terminate the promise for a specific party which files a patent infringement lawsuit or other patent proceedings against EA. We can see parts of EV’s ambition behind the announcement—to build a large game developer league and a community of shared interests.     Reference: https://www.ea.com/commitments/positive-play/accessibility-patent-pledge https://iknow.stpi.narl.org.tw/Post/Read.aspx?PostID=14562 https://www.polygon.com/22639469/apex-legends-electronic-arts-patent-pledge-accessibility-developers https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/24/22638535/ea-accessibility-patent-pledge-apex-legends-ping-system https://www.gamesradar.com/ea-secures-a-patent-for-the-apex-legends-ping-system-and-its-giving-it-away-for-free/ https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/apex-legends-ping-system-is-now-patent-free-for-accessibility https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/08/apex_legends_ping_system_now_patent-free_as_ea_announces_accessibility_pledge Recently, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a patent pledge that gives other companies and developers free access to five of its current accessibility-related patents and technology. The company promised not to enforce against any party for infringing any of the listed patents. Instead, EA hopes to encourage “innovation” and build new features that make video games more inclusive on a much larger scale by opening up the patents.    Electronic Arts (EA) is an American video game company founded in 1982. The company owns many popular and famous games, such as The Sims, SimCity, Apex Legends, Madden NFL and FIFA. Each of the games has more than 30 or 50 million sales volume. Significantly, esports involves FIFA and Apex Legends into the event list. Apex Legends has up to 1 billion players, and it is so popular that it has a Switch version.   Within the freely available patents, one of which grabs everyone’s attention -- Apex Legends’ ping system (patent No. US 11097189). The ping system in Apex Legends, which excellently allows players to make communication and teamwork quick and easy without hearing or speaking, has been praised both as an impressive alternative to voice chat and as a great accessibility feature for players with a variety of disabilities.    The other patents include the technology widely used in the FIFA and Madden NFL. The innovations can automatically detect and modify colors (patent No. US 10118097 and CN 107694092) and contrast ratios (patent No. US 10878540) to improve gamers’ visibility with colorblindness and low vision. Furthermore, one of the patents relates to personalized sound technology, helping players with hearing issues by modifying or creating music based on their preferences (patent No. US 10790919).   The
2021-10-22
The

The forum on "China's Intellectual Property-related Reform Measures and New Trends in Patent Litigation" will be held successfully!

The forum on "China's Intellectual Property-related Reform Measures and New Trends in Patent Litigation" will be held successfully! In response to the call for building a strong country with intellectual property rights, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of October 21, the forum on "China's reform measures related to intellectual property rights and new trends in patent litigation" will be successfully held in Nanjing Jiangbei New District Industrial Technology Research and Innovation Park. The event was hosted by the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Management Committee, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Industrial Technology Research and Innovation Park, Nanjing Intellectual Property Rights Protection Assistance Center Jiangbei New District Center, Nanjing Huaxun Intellectual Property Consultant Co., Ltd., Nanjing Intellectual Property Co-organized by the Protection Center (Nanjing Intellectual Property Rights Protection Assistance Center), Taiwan Pharmaceutical Development Association, and Gene Online. The director of Nanjing Intellectual Property Protection Center, Mou Xiaojian, delivered a speech. Director Mu expressed his warm congratulations on the holding of this event and introduced in detail the new pattern of intellectual property protection in Nanjing. He said: At present, Nanjing has implemented a rights protection assistance network in the municipal area. With full coverage, Nanjing Intellectual Property Protection Center is willing to closely communicate and interact with Nanjing's innovation entities, and provide relevant public welfare services such as rapid pre-review, rapid rights protection, and comprehensive utilization for enterprises in need. In addition, Huang Funan, CEO of Gene Online, was unable to come to congratulate due to the epidemic, and recorded a congratulatory video. In the video, he said: China Innovative Pharmaceuticals has already made many outstanding achievements on the international stage, and these are inseparable from intellectual property rights. The support of the company can also show the importance of intellectual property rights to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. This event invites four industry experts to focus on China's reform measures related to intellectual property rights and new trends in patent litigation, discuss with companies and universities, and make arrangements in advance. Dr. Qingchen Hou, general manager of Nanjing Huaxun Intellectual Property Consulting Co., Ltd., introduced the "Guidelines for Building a Powerful Country with Intellectual Property Rights (2021-2035)" and explained his views from four aspects: background, strategic layout, overall requirements, and organizational guarantees. . Subsequently, a detailed analysis of China's patent linkage system was carried out, and compared with the same types of cases at home and abroad, questions were raised: Why should we reward the first person who successfully challenged patents? Not the first person to file a P4 application? And have a series of discussions with you. Director Jiang Haijun of the Intellectual Property Protection Legal Committee of the Nanjing Lawyers Association gave a speech on three points: the problems after the amendment of the patent law, the enforceability of the amount of compensation, and the legal conflicts related to service inventions. Regarding the patent right evaluation report, he emphasized that the patentee, interested party or accused infringer can also proactively issue a patent right evaluation report. "Patent is a work of art that combines technology and law" is a message shared by Mr. Feng Tao from Jiangsu Junbo Law Firm at this event. Mr. Feng analyzes the big data of Chinese patent litigation cases through graphs and examples. Explore. The last topic of the event was shared by Guo Huangying, Intellectual Property Manager of Nanjing Huaxun Intellectual Property Agency (General Partnership)-China's Patent Infringement Judgment Principles and New Developments. Manager Guo explained to everyone the principles of patent infringement judgment and the necessity of patent infringement search and analysis before producing and selling products. In the intellectual property industry, ECCOM has been providing high-quality and professional comprehensive intellectual property services to enterprises and universities one step at a time. It also hopes that under the leadership of the state and the government, it will contribute to the building of a strong intellectual property nation in China. Make a contribution.
2021-10-22
Types

Types of patents that are easily overlooked- Design Patent

Types of patents that are easily overlooked- Design Patent In recent years, as the public’s awareness of intellectual property has increased, people have begun to consciously use the patent law to protect their intellectual property rights. However, in the process of implementation, they often only focus on invention patent and utility model patent, and tend to ignore the protection of design patent. Recently, Midea sued Haotaitai for two models of CXW-300-D998 and CXW-300-D908 Haotaitai brand range hoods In the case of suspected infringement of its design patent (patent number: ZL201930621598.X), the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court made a first-instance judgment after hearing that it determined that the two products of Haotaitai constituted infringement, and ordered it to immediately stop the infringement and compensate Midea, The company's economic losses and reasonable expenses totaled 360,000 yuan. In fact, appearance infringement cases have occurred from time to time before, such as: "Molly" blind box design patent case, "Siemens" switch design patent infringement dispute case received a compensation of 6 million yuan, three Casio watch design patents were infringed Received a compensation of 8.8 million yuan and so on. The reason why people ignore the protection of design patents, in the final analysis, is that they have insufficient knowledge of design patents. Today, let's take a look at what is protected by design patents and what rights protections can we apply for? Design patent definition: Article 2 of the "Patent Law", design patent, refers to a new design that is aesthetically pleasing and suitable for industrial applications based on the shape, pattern, or combination of products, and the combination of color, shape, and pattern. Protected range: The shape of the product; the pattern of the product; the shape and pattern of the product; the shape and color of the product; the pattern and color of the product; the shape, pattern and color of the product. Protection period: The term of protection for design patent rights is 15 years, calculated from the date of filing. What are the conditions for applying for a design patent? The design should be aesthetically pleasing Appearance patents should be suitable for industrial applications The design patent application should be novel The design patent application should be inventiveness What are the advantages and functions of design patents? Protect the rights and interests of enterprises in product designs and fight against infringements in market competition. To enhance brand value, the quality and quantity of patents are the embodiment of the company's innovation ability and core competitiveness. Receive consumer recognition. If a company's new product appearance is filed for a patent in a timely manner, its appearance design will enjoy the exclusive right. Nowadays, consumers often choose products with trendy and beautiful appearance when buying their products. Applying for a design patent is a necessary condition for applying for a high-tech enterprise.
2021-09-26
Colopl

Colopl Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Nintendo by Paying $30 Million

Colopl Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit with Nintendo by Paying $30 Million   This August, Nintendo and a game developer Colopl announced that they have settled for patent infringement regarding White Cat Project (Shironeko Project in Japanese), a smartphone game developed by Colopl. Although both companies did not publicly share exact details of the settlement, at least it is sure that Colopl agreed to pay 3.3 billion yen (about US$30.2 million) as the settlement fee for the proceedings, including the future license of Nintendo's patents.    How did the battle begin?  Being developed and published by a Japanese game developer, Colopl, White Cat Project is a free-to-play action role-playing game for Android and iOS systems. The mobile game was launched in July 2014 as well as got a television anime adaptation in 2020. It is incredibly popular to have more than 50 million downloads. Furthermore, the game is set to receive a Switch version titled "Shironeko New Project".    In September 2016, Nintendo noted the Colopl's game and considered that the game had infringed on several of Nintendo's technology patents. The two companies communicated with each other for over a year; however, Nintendo did not accept the explanations from Colopl, and Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Colopl at the beginning of 2018.    Nintendo claimed that Colopl infringed 6 of its patents. These patents protect touch-screen joystick functionality (patent no. JP3734820), multiplayer connectivity (patent no. JP5595991, JP6271692), confirmation screens in sleep mode (patent no. JP4010533), character attacks based on touch input locations (patent no. JP4262217), and a shadow effect placed on characters hidden behind the game geometry (patent no. JP3637031).   These patents almost cover various ways of game technology, especially the patent  JP5595991 and JP6271692. Their patent family is wide-reaching, and many divisional applications of the family are pending in Japan. They protect a communication game system and its related devices. It is not easy to detect the patent's existence and boundary since this kind of hardcore technique is so common in the gaming field and our daily lives.     The five-year patent war has been settled.  After a five-year dispute, the situation appeared to turn in Nintendo's favor as the Switch maker increased its monetary demands, which convinced Colopl to strike a deal that lets it use the disputed patents. Furthermore, a Switch version of White Cat Project remains in the works at Colopl.    With the extraordinary losses of Colopl, the legal battle between the two companies came to an end.  
2021-09-09
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