How Chinese entrepreneurs prevent "being cottage"

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This may not be an imminent problem, but enough to become a latent bomb.

Article | Colin

As an entrepreneur, you may have been accustomed to the industry's general "only fast not broken" type of Art of war, has long been "doctrine". Wait a minute, are you worried that your products may infringe on others ' rights, or that you are less protective of your own innovations?

What we want to discuss this time is how startups deal with intellectual property issues, especially "copyrights" and "patents".

Case: Copyright infringement, fall into the "tears lawsuit"

Statement person: "Sea word" founder Fan

When I read the American Shuoboliandu, I found the students ' demand for dictionaries very strong, and founded the online dictionary "Sea Word" in 2003. Because I hope to do brand promotion in China, the choice of Baidu and two portals to cooperate, by providing content authorization and platform support, to help the portal to build a "dictionary" channel, I hope that the other side to help us to the "sea word" brand to fight out.

It is clear from the contract that no changes are allowed, and all adjustments are subject to our consent. Later, the cooperation of a portal out of the problem: the contract required to expose the sea Word brand, and put the sea Word site links, they took advantage of our attention on the link away. We found that after looking for the past, the other said the technical staff do not understand, immediately put up, after a few days to see again. Then the other side complained, said the product manager that our brand logo and interface is very discordant, user opinion, proposed to replace the black text, we did not want to agree to then later changed to Gray, the third year when even Gray is gone.

2010 I decided to terminate the cooperation. Logically speaking, our content should be off the shelf, but they left half of the content, change the order to continue to use, while everywhere to buy those who do not update the old dictionary content, and finally give users the feeling is "network interpretation", the list of several dictionaries to explain, let users pick their own use. Another portal to us more respect, has been hanging the sea word, but also give us advertising bit. But I have a bitter experience, do not intend to do authorization.

I was also aggrieved to find a lawyer friend and ask if I could resort to law. But this matter needs forensics, have to seize two of the server, and the other side of the word library made changes, but the extent of the changes to how deep, there is no standard to assess and limit. So complicated, how to tell?

A few months ago, the company used the content of the sea Word, this time I did not endure, sued the court, but now has not closed. It was a start-up company that did the word on the line, grabbed the contents of the sea word intact and caught the version we had just applied for copyright in 2010.

Later, in the location of the infringement trial, did a sample assessment, the other side also admitted, said to be willing to reconcile, itself also have no money, lose hundreds of thousands of, stop the infringement, in the local and Shanghai (sea Word location) in a local newspaper apology, issued a statement on the website. The local Court also hope that the settlement, if you want to continue to go on, I concluded that the money to do a complete comparison, please other third party notary organs, artificial to a section of the comparison, or the timing of charges, the project is extremely long. Winning is a little bit more, but it costs 200,000.

The question of the case extension

Q related to intellectual property cases, will become the "tears lawsuit"?

A: Chinese courts usually slow down and it is difficult to determine how much the defendant should pay. Judges and juries in the United States will directly determine whether the rights are valid and the amount of compensation, or the Law Society of both sides to negotiate the compensation, if the infringement caused a great loss, the defendant will pay a lot of money, including punitive damages, resulting in the defendant may be bankrupt. In the United States, complex cases are often subject to years lawsuits, most of which end in some form of reconciliation. China is not a jury mechanism, so the judge's responsibility is relatively large, the plaintiff's burden of proof is relatively large, often encounter difficulties in gathering evidence, these and other factors, resulting in intellectual property cases generally less compensation. --Juberchun

A: The forensics of intellectual property cases is really complicated, because if a similar part of the work does not exceed 20%, it does not form a tort. All products are works on the shoulders of giants. The outstanding situation, I think the best reconciliation. Litigation Case Summary Procedure 3 months, ordinary procedure 6 months of trial limit, if you win the other side may appeal, the situation is more complicated. --Zhou

A: Such cases are generally in the case of infringement, the plaintiff on the road is very passive. Apple sued Samsung for the US, which is headquartered in South Korea, only selling products to the United States. The advantage at home will be particularly obvious and easy to win sympathy. --Wang Jialiang

Q What is the effect of a contract when it comes to intellectual property?

A: A lot of intellectual property cases, the key issue is the contract. To sign the contract about copyright and authorization, be careful to write out the details of the issue. The contract involved in the trademark, in the agreement to write the specific about which trademarks, if the transfer, the other party if the future does not assist the completion of the party, whether the assignor has the right to replace each other to complete the transfer. If it is required to show your logo, on the Web page on how large, what color and location, if the other party did not do so, to what extent, when the contract defaults, the authorization will automatically terminate. --Juberchun

Q: Content is copied, can only yaba?

A: I think it's either a business model or a bad user experience, or a technical solution, which may be more appropriate for an American company than the other way around. --Juberchun

A: The founders have to think clearly about their core values. The Internet industry has a special point, is the content is difficult to form the threshold. For dictionaries, the user needs to integrate a mass of content, a more convenient way to get information. From an investor's point of view, I don't care about being copied, but whether it has the user capacity or can create some way to make money. Others copy you, and will not affect your users back. was copied, but you become stronger, is the winner.

But if you are the Thunder, similar to download the acceleration of the technology is important value, if this technology was copied by others, means that others can also do a thunderbolt out, that would be amazing. --Kuantai #p# subtitle #e#

Case: Overseas development, planning core patents, the best form of the system

Statement person: "Touch Treasure" founder Wang Jialiang

Touch Treasure was founded in 2008, because of the hope to overseas development, from the beginning of the deployment of patent applications. When I was a patent at Microsoft, I used to communicate with Microsoft's chief legal advisor and I studied Intellectual property law in college. In order to touch the treasure, I found a variety of industry famous patents to study, but also from the United States website to download a pile of information, sometimes on the bus turned over to look. If I didn't start my own business, I would probably be a good intellectual property lawyer in this industry.

Patent this thing a bit like go or minesweeper: You have to go around the patents, not to invade them, like in a minefield, detect where the thunder of others, and at the same time to put New thunder in the past, so that the people behind you more difficult to go. However, there are many roads, I think 90% of the patents are easily bypassed, but in some cases only "Huashan Road", or many roads must be from this place to converge. We all can't get around a certain point is the most important, I think it is the core patent. It will become a core competency.

Under what circumstances should you apply? I conclude that, first of all, if you do overseas market, foreign partners will ask the first sentence of intellectual property rights, this must have; secondly, as long as it involves business-to-business cooperation, large companies will attach great importance to intellectual property rights, including China's ZTE, Huawei and so on; If you think that some of your innovations may become a widespread application in the industry or even standard, consider registering, just like Amazon's "one Click Purchase". You may even receive a large amount of grant money one day.

Sometimes the need to form a "patent pool" can really play a role. The touch treasure is now barely counted as a patent pool, with some deterrent effect. And I think the patent is a defense tool, if the other company said you encroach on its rights, and you registered a few patents, the other company may use one of your, or your registered several patents can be used together, then you can turn to the other side. Offense is the best defense.

The question of the case extension

Q: What does intellectual property include?

A: Intellectual property rights include patent copyrights, copyrights, trademarks, technical secrets, know-how, etc. Some rights are not registered in government departments, such as trademarks and patents, and can be generated automatically without registration, such as copyrights and trade secrets. --Juberchun

Q: When should the patent be registered?

A: It's too late to register when you need it. The invention patent from submits to obtains the government registration, has to have two or three years interval between, obtains the foreign patent protection also to need the time, may obtain the patent protection at the same time with the "Paris Convention" or the PCT realization at a relatively low cost in the multinational. --Juberchun

A: Unless applying for a patent will have a fundamental impact on your business, there is no need to apply. There is no use is not necessarily, but registration requires a certain cost. --Kuantai

Case: Received foreign companies warning mail, patent into defensive measures

Statement person: "Love" founder Shiqing

"Love Bar" on the line once I received the mail, from Badoo, a dating site founded in the UK, says they have a patent for getting content from Facebook, and we're connected to Sina Weibo, and they think it's also through social media, and love violates their patents. Love is really to be connected with Sina Weibo, and I was in the venture just some protection awareness, but also registered a patent, reply to them. Then the other side did not find trouble.

However, if it is three months ago, I will say that the patent is very important, but now I think the first small business is to survive, and now we are still in the need to do a good product, otherwise it may die out of the stage. If the demand for intellectual property is also written as "Maslow's Demand Theory", the most important is the domain name, if you have the possibility of bigger, it will affect your promotion, the second is registered trademarks, but it does not matter if someone has been registered, can come back, or register into other categories, and then the product still use that name can also; Patents and copyrights are again to be wanted.

The question of the case extension

What do you do when Q:app is off the shelf?

A: We've been exposed to a lot of app shelves, which is more controversial. The APP store and the Android Market are managed by private companies, pursuing specific business interests and having their own specifications. Others accuse you of infringement that may lead to the next shelf, but if you can come up with the opposite evidence, it may be back on the shelves. If they are not satisfied, it is more difficult to go to court to sue these online markets because the market is not government action. However, if infringed by other parties, should consider to prosecute abroad, and then take a court decision to ask the market to put the infringing party's app shelves. --Juberchun

Q: How do you know if you are involved in plagiarism?

A: The best way is to do patent search, registration will be first in the National Patent Office to search, it will take about 2000 yuan, this search is global. Or consulting lawyers, lawyers are timed fees, through the "legal housekeeper" to find a lawyer, the service charge is generally 500 yuan per hour. --Zhou

Q: How to deal with the message of warning nature?

A: If there is any mail harassment, remember to save the record. It is best not to delete anything, delete what should not be deleted, the court may think you are not honest. Especially in the United States, the other party will ask you to provide all the information related to this case. Of course, this may later be your evidence as a plaintiff. --Juberchun #p# subtitle #e#

Case: Try to choose the thing that does not have the copyright to do

Statement person: An entrepreneur, has founded the music website, is engaged in the video service

When I was a music website I bought the copyright of more than 10 music factories, and it took about 200,000. Small factory card is relatively cheap, four record companies more expensive. Netizens search the mainstream, or those big company music, the mainstream we only bought the "sea Butterflies" family, you search a "JJ Lin" can at least have it. Now I do video site, try to avoid the use of copyrighted content, but the main hit some users upload video.

Domestic copyright protection compared to foreign very outdated, thunder, fast broadcast such a model itself to the copyright challenge is very big. To be honest, as long as the thunderbolt such companies are still in the market, intellectual property issues can not be completely resolved.

Small companies buy copyright relatively cheap, when they grow up the other side may be very high price. Big companies and small companies handle different ways. YouTube relies on its own system, each upload a video, will be with all its copyright library to compare, if you find that you use a certain period or a piece of music, you will tell the copyright party and allow it to delete.

The question of the case extension

Q: When should the copyright issue be handled?

A: Experienced lawyers will tell you what the risk is if you don't get the authorization. Like Cooley's lawyers and the big American film and television companies like Disney, ABC have dealt with, the other side is more powerful, there are harsh terms, to find a lawyer to know what terms can swing. If you do not go through a lawyer and talk to each other directly, it is possible to passively accept a lot of terms. --Juberchun

A: In China, some people are malicious, want to use copyright to make money. They publish pictures on the internet and say they are free to use, but when you print them online and use them for commercial purposes, you need to pay for them. --Zhou

A: Before the listing is the latest to be done, the first two years before the launch of the preparation of applications and maintenance. It's hard to clean up when the company is too big, too early to clean up and no ability, medium is the best time to clean up, and you are already in the radar range of others.

If your business model relies on something that is not what you produce, I think you have to do it very well to be successful, or you can't afford the royalties. The industry has a few, you are the fifth place, under such circumstances is not past. --Kuantai

Supplementary reading A

How to see the patent tug of foreign giants?

Dictation | Juberchun Wang Jialiang

Among giants, patents are weapons. Mr Jobs is a tougher CEO who wants to hit a fast-growing competitor with a patent. A few days ago HTC and Apple finally reconciled. HTC, aware of the impact on Apple, has focused on patents, collecting patents from many 3G and 4G wireless technology companies. It starts a patent war with Apple, and if it doesn't, the case becomes more complicated. When you have a dispute with the Giants that you are already playing cards with them, you can understand it as a sign of success, but you have to have a hand. --Juberchun

Take the case of Samsung and Apple, many patents from a purely professional point of view is not tenable, tort is not so direct. The key issue in the case is the American judicial system.

In a patent application there is a "claim", whether the infringement depends on the claim, not the content of the patent itself, but the claim is sometimes larger than the patent description, sometimes small. The patent itself is a very professional thing, patent writing itself has a lot of tips, the applicant can write it obscure, most people actually can not understand. Most of the time, the defendants ' lawyers were trying to get the jury's sympathy.

In the course of the proceedings, in addition to the jury has another role-the patent office, it will again analyze the existence of the patent. Sometimes the patent office has not yet reached a conclusion, the defendant company constantly give evidence that they have no infringement, confusion, before Samsung and Apple in the case of tablet computer, Samsung took the "Star Wars" inside a scene to say that it was already a tablet computer, it is very funny.

Finally, 60%, 70% are often reconciled, or even dragged, dragged to the end of the product life cycle. The reason why Apple and Samsung have been able to play all the time is because of the high level of concern in this case, the judges, lawyers, and juries have spent a lot of the day on it. --Wang Jialiang

Supplementary Reading II

Facebook didn't have any patent reserves in the early days, and it started registering in 2008, and the law department told everyone every week that it would do a 10-minute sermon, or we'd be too lazy to think about it. Facebook is still an engineer culture, and other departments rarely push things.

Patent in the United States has several application procedures, there are some of you directly to submit information up, the patent office first not to review, like the first occupy the place, within a year you can send a formal application, play a time lag. Facebook has incentives to apply for a patent, and the application will be more successful, giving hundreds of of dollars in cash directly. Later we are also "education", know that the patent is "a gun not loaded," can frighten people, looks like a dead end, in fact, the best result is to reach a settlement.

I have applied for five or six teams and two have passed. Facebook has a small team dedicated to intellectual property, and as an engineer, leader only needs to communicate with the team. He would ask me, like an interview, what the patent was for, what the technical framework was, and then draw him a picture; he would do it after he heard it and then send it back to me.

In addition to the patent and trade secrets, but I did not hear that Facebook has any trade secrets, but the company's people must sign some confidentiality agreement, the visitors will be very strict inspection. I think there is a bit more to note: Sometimes code leaks are irrelevant, and most importantly, those parameters. A product out, you will need a lot of time, experience to adjust parameters, this is wealth. Other companies may not be able to do the same, after all, we are not the same size, but if competitors copy words, still can take shortcuts.

Facebook catches, there are often people in unknown companies sending e-mails to employees saying you violated one of our technology patents. The legal officer immediately informs all his colleagues not to delete the mail. They will first use the existing patents to refute each other, generally one round of the other side will not sound. If they do violate their rights, Facebook will make a lot of money to fix it.