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For a long time, some tool companies have regarded “pre-imitation and post-innovation†as their product development ideas, which has attracted many foreign tool companies to criticize them. They believe that imitation products have constituted infringement.
The term imitation can be interpreted as imitative production. There is no doubt that imitation is an act of infringement of intellectual property rights.
Bringing intellectual property disputes
Compared with international brand tool companies, China's tool companies are still incomparable in terms of scale and technology, especially the technical barriers are more difficult for some companies to overcome. The imitation of advanced cutting tools will undoubtedly bring benefits to some tool companies. Of course, the drawbacks are obvious, that is, allegedly infringing intellectual property rights. Some enterprises have accumulated a solid technology and talent pool, and gradually began to truly innovate in the true sense, but most of the companies are still immersed in endless imitation, always at the bottom. Not only that, with the rise of some domestic tool companies, the imitation of the object is gradually shifting.
Once the product is suspected of being brought to court by imitation infringement, the bitter fruit of imitation will show up. A few years ago, a domestic independent brand Z had been sued by a famous international tool company C for several products suspected of imitation. The entire litigation process lasted for several years. During the period, several products of Z company were banned from listing. The final result ended with the withdrawal of the C company, but the resulting losses are immeasurable. In 2009, two well-known tool brands in China, S and Q, were in court due to intellectual property disputes, and they were attacked by Q companies that are in rapid development. Many executives were even criminally prosecuted, and the future was worrisome.
Two cases have brought warnings to the imitation and innovation of the tool industry. In today's emphasis on intellectual property protection, enhancing the ability of independent innovation is the right way for enterprises to develop. However, to this day, many small and medium-sized tool companies are still doing their own thing and continue to rely on imitation of advanced tools to profit.
In addition to being able to gain technological advancement through imitation, the needs of some users are also one of the reasons for the survival of imitation tools. Some small machining companies need tools with low price and quality that can be guaranteed. The imitation tools have certain technical content and can meet the requirements. Processing requirements of these companies. On the other hand, in many industries such as automobiles and steam turbines, some user companies have realized the cost of control through the localization of tools. The localization of such tools is also a copy, which infringes the intellectual property rights of the original tools.
However, the technical strength of these companies is limited, and a limited number of technicians are simply unable to conduct innovative research. More time is spent on mapping tools and after-sales services. The mere imitation of the tool leaves a hidden danger to the future development of the enterprise. The accumulated accumulation of the enterprise is only the manufacturing experience. It still cannot be improved in terms of technical strength. It cannot be innovated on the basis of imitation, and thus it will be buried for future intellectual property disputes. Hidden dangers.
Promote technological progress
One thing is clear: mapping and analyzing other products is not an infringement. Therefore, in addition to imitation, many companies will analyze the competitor's products to obtain detailed survey and analysis reports, so as to understand the advantages of each other's products, in order to refer to the development of new products, we can call it imitation.
Imitation and imitation have essential differences in meaning. In the field of industrial technology, imitation is an important means to promote technological progress, which is recognized by the vast majority of people. Now when it comes to innovation, many people are eager to try to come up with something that has never come before to prove their extraordinary creativity, but it is not realistic to rely on the shoulders of their predecessors to rely solely on their own creation. In fact, in the field of tool innovation, the idea that a patented tool is not necessarily all original is generally accepted.
When a company produces a certain type of product, it first searches for a patent. If there is a patent in this area, it will generally make changes based on the structure of the patent application, so that the product does not conflict with the patent claim, so it will not worry about the infringement. The problem arises. An industry expert told reporters that many products from many internationally renowned tool companies will also have this situation. For example, an enterprise applies for patent protection for the design of a certain product, and another company avoids infringement by changing the appearance by imitation, in the same principle of internal structure, and actually plagiarizes the tool design principle of the enterprise. But this change is positive.
Pay attention to avoiding infringement risks
The tool is relatively traditional in the industry. The technological progress of the past hundred years has made the general technology of the tool develop very rapidly. Sometimes the tool structure is consistent and the tool angle is the same. It is impossible to accurately determine whether the infringement is correct. At this time, the selection process of the cutting parameters can be judged whether The basis of the infringement. The best parameters for these tools suitable for cutting different materials are not available in one selection. They need to undergo continuous cutting tests and corrections. Therefore, there is no other experimental data. It is basically impossible to directly select the best angle at one time. It must exist. Infringement.
For domestic enterprises, the combination of imitation and innovation is a necessary means to catch up with the advanced, but in the process must pay attention to avoiding the risk of infringement. It should be noted that this combination should be based on a certain technology, that is, a certain understanding of the principle of the tool, otherwise it is only the shape and not the essence. For example, in a well-known foreign company W, such a thing happened. A user felt that a certain tool application of the company was very effective, but it was expensive, so he provided the tool to a domestic tool company for imitation and use. . In the legal sense, this behavior has violated the intellectual property rights of W companies. It is a pity that the imitation of the tool company is only a copy, and the principle of the tool is not deeply understood, so that it is impossible to design a new tool suitable for cutting after the workpiece is changed, and obviously has no ability to innovate.
What is disappointing is that the imitation of more companies is still stuck in the copy. Imitation does not mean copying. If so, it is still imitation, and it is still a violation. In the end, it should have become the “imitation + innovation†of domestic tool enterprises to upgrade their technical level or inevitably return to the old infringement of imitation. The technical level and product quality of the enterprise have not been really improved.
Long road to trademark protection
3.15 The voice of concentrated discussion on counterfeiting and rights protection has not completely disappeared, but it seems to be far from the rights of the tool industry. News reports on infringing knives were occasionally seen in newspapers, and IP litigation cases were even rarer. Many appearances indicate that the infringements in the tool industry are very minor. However, this is not the case. The facts under the cover are shocking.
Trademark rights are difficult
The infringements in the tool industry are mainly manifested in trademark infringement and patent infringement. In the reports of relevant departments' official websites and media, infringement cases concerning the tool industry are rare. A small number of rights protection actions are mostly carried out by manufacturers. However, it cannot be considered that violations are rare. In fact, the infringement of trademark exclusive rights is the most common infringement in the current tool industry. The infringement of trademark exclusive rights is actually what we usually call counterfeit knives. This magazine once planned to organize the “counterfeiting tool survival space survey†for the tool industry. The infringement of counterfeit knives, an infringement of intellectual property rights, has been thoroughly investigated and analyzed. However, three years have passed, and the infringement of counterfeit famous brand knives is still in existence.
From a small number of news reports, we found that similar victims of trademark infringement are mostly domestic famous tool manufacturers, such as Shanghai Tools Co., Ltd. and Harbin No. 1 Tools Co., Ltd., all of which are standard knives. series. This is because standard general-purpose tools belong to the traditional industrial technology field, and the technical difficulty is not high. Many small enterprises and even some small family workshops can produce them at low cost. These products are sold by means of famous trademarks or similar trademarks. Get huge profits.
A senior intellectual property consultant told reporters that trademark infringement cases are relatively good intellectual property cases and are relatively common cases. The country's legal provisions on trademark protection are relatively comprehensive, and the same judgment of trademarks is relatively easy, and the judgment of trademarks is slightly troublesome. This is mainly related to the number of judgment units of trademarks. The General Trademark Office, the Trademark Review Board, and the local intermediates and The High Court has jurisdiction over trademark infringement, and the conclusions that each unit may draw are contrary. Still, it is much easier than the judgment of patent infringement. There is a difference between trademark infringement and patent infringement. Patent infringement will only reduce the sales space of the product. The trademark infringement brings not only the loss of money caused by the reduction of sales space, but also the quality problem of the infringing product. The loss of reputation brought by the enterprise is a serious blow to the corporate image, which will make the original good image of the user's heart fall down. This loss is incalculable.
The phenomenon of counterfeiting famous brand knives is very common everywhere, but many reasons make it difficult to maintain trademark exclusive rights. First of all, as an industrial product, tool is different from mass consumer goods. There will not be many consumers reporting it. Many tool users will become a hotbed of infringing products, especially for patent infringement. Even if a user buys a counterfeit infringing product, most of them are not. Secondly, the law enforcement is not active. The industrial and commercial departments and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China also mainly focus on products in the fields of life and agriculture in their daily governance actions, and there is basically no special anti-counterfeiting involving knives. In addition, the cost of rights protection is too high. Most of the activism actions are carried out by the production enterprises and the law enforcement agencies to carry out joint operations. From the situation of the situation, coordination with the local public security, industry and commerce, and technical supervision departments, to technical appraisal, a series of The work is time consuming and laborious. Discontinuous activism can only play a temporary role, and enterprises are not worth the loss. The compensation obtained by means of legal means is also limited. For example, in 2009, Shanghai Tool Factory Co., Ltd. sued Shanghai Basic Hardware Co., Ltd. for infringement of trademark exclusive rights disputes. This is one of the few cases in which the domestic tool industry has not prosecuted the courts in the trademark rights protection operation, although the final judgment of the basic hardware company infringement Determined and won 25,000 yuan. However, such a small amount of compensation is absolutely illegal to make up for the loss, especially the reputational damage caused by counterfeit products to the enterprise.
Enterprises should also become the main body
Every business has its own trademark, but not every company can realize that its trademark is "money." The construction of trademarks is not a one-time process. The birth, cultivation and construction of a well-known trademark is a long and arduous process. How to convert your investment in trademarks into income, or to get the most satisfactory results with the minimum investment, while avoiding the losses caused by other companies fraudulent use of trademarks, is worthy of consideration for every enterprise.
On the road to protecting intellectual property rights, companies cannot be the shopkeepers. Compared with foreign companies, domestic enterprises often have a poor sense of intellectual property protection, while the industrial and commercial departments responsible for safeguarding rights, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Customs have poor initiative in defending tool products, and enterprises generally invest less in safeguarding rights. Whether it is trademark infringement or patent infringement, if an enterprise wants to achieve results in its own intellectual property protection, it must take active actions to increase investment in intellectual property protection, such as establishing specialized rights protection agencies and providing special funds for rights protection. Protection work provides protection, the establishment of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and the identification of special personnel responsible for intellectual property rights protection.
Doing a good job of trademark rights protection is enough for most tool companies that still operate in a single-brand market, but the protection of intellectual property rights should not be focused on the immediate situation. With the rise of some domestic tool companies, there should be a large tool enterprise group like Sandvik Coromant in the future, and it is impossible for it to be limited to one brand. Future trademark management will no longer be a simple issue of rights protection, but should also be systematically managed. This requires an independent trademark management department to systematically manage all registered trademarks and a large number of trademark applications. In this way, system management can reduce the cost of the trademark itself, and can effectively avoid competitors, legal use of trademarks, reduce compensation for trademark infringement, and ensure that the infringement of its own trademarks brings benefits.
Missing core patent technology
According to the statistics of the State Intellectual Property Office, as of March 2010, the number of patent applications accepted by China has exceeded 601,114,400. However, in many patent applications, domestic tool companies are still lacking in the number of patent applications. If you enter the company name to search, the comparison results may be even more surprising. Many internationally renowned tool companies have applied for more than 100 patents, of which Sandvik Coromant has registered more than 400 patents. In contrast, Zhuzhou Diamond's nearly 200 patents have been the best among many domestic tool companies, and some other large companies have only dozens or even several patents.
Intellectual property should be a strategy for enterprises first and a strategy to protect and create their own competitive advantage. Intellectual property rights are a powerful weapon. Nowadays, the industry has entered the era of intellectual property wars. Enterprises must arm themselves in order to survive. Domestic tool companies are beginning to realize this and are constantly enhancing their innovation capabilities, but the lack of core patented technology makes them inferior in the market competition.
The lack of core patent technology affects the future development of the company. In the pursuit of various patents of international tool companies, fewer and fewer tools can be produced, or a large amount of patent fees must be paid, no matter which aspect of the Chinese tool companies. Development is unfavorable.
The gap is inevitable. It is even more important to strive to catch up with the return, invest in innovation, research and development, and establish an appropriate intellectual property portfolio to fill the gap in intellectual property in the short term. Domestic enterprises should abandon the old patent application and use mechanism, consider whether they are in line with the business objectives of the enterprise, and make benefits, so as to avoid unnecessary waste caused by the pursuit of false names. Zhuzhou Diamond's achievements in independent innovation are worth learning from other companies. The technical research and development team of more than 160 people guarantees that it will launch new products every year, and thus continue to maintain its leading position among domestic tool companies. Wang Shequan, deputy general manager of Zhuzhou Diamond, told the reporter that the well-developed R&D team of Zhuzhou has strong R&D and design capabilities, and the newly launched products can prove that the design and development capabilities are being greatly improved. The construction of the “Precision Tool Innovation Platform†in the major national numerical control project provides more room for development of future independent innovation. This allows us to see the hope of catching up.
The patents for independent innovation have become the key to keeping patents valid for a long time. The term of protection for patents is 10 to 20 years, but many technologies will fall behind in a few years. Domestic tool companies often simplifies this, so patent holders lack the motivation to actively improve to promote better patent implementation. In this respect, Kenner Metal's experience is worth learning. In terms of patent management, patent holders will be patented as long as they continue to improve their processes and implement methods during the patent validity period, so that patents can achieve new effects and adapt to new situations. The holder has a certain reward. If the sales of the patented products are better, the higher the reward, the patent holders will continue to find ways to help the company continue to develop and help improve the implementation of patents.
In addition to enhancing R&D design teams and improving independent innovation capabilities, companies can also create intellectual property systems through other methods, such as cooperation, mergers and acquisitions, and participation in standards development to achieve rapid access to intellectual property.
Cooperation and mergers and acquisitions can quickly obtain the corresponding intellectual property rights, change the intellectual property status of enterprises, and further absorb and absorb the corresponding technologies, so that enterprises can achieve rapid improvement. For example, Harbin Measuring Tool Group Co., Ltd. acquired the German KELCH company and obtained a platform to directly participate in the international market competition, achieving the docking of enterprise product technology and international high-end technology.
Another way to maintain a competitive advantage is to participate in the setting of standards to ensure a balanced use of intellectual property. For holders with strong intellectual property rights, not only can they gain a strategic advantage in terms of competition, but they can also greatly reduce the cost of patent use, increase their competitive position and reduce the cost of goods sold. There are only a handful of companies that can use this strategy, and those with strong technology or intellectual property positions have opportunities. The National Standards Committee Spline Measuring Tool Working Group was established in Jiaxing Hengfeng Tools Co., Ltd., which has been able to provide a complete solution for the spline cooperation of a large number of users. By participating in the development of the standard of the spline measuring tool, the competitive advantage of the product can be ensured. .
The cutting-edge status quo of the tool industry
Imitation, difficult to swallow