Dear Sirs!
I want to address companies which seriously consider foreign trade activities, and those who already employ these practices.
At this moment the words “patent security” are acquiring a completely different meaning and becoming more relevant.
Companies which work following the trade templates used in the INDIA don’t work in the European Union.
Many businessmen from the Russian Federation are surprised when they hear words “trademark patent” or “industrial design patent”. And when it comes to investing into patent security on the primary stages, companies from the Russian Federation are surprised.
The recent scandal around the delivery of milk from China to the Russian Federation is the first link in the chain of such events which can happen in the near future.
Attached is a citation of one of the sources on this matter:
A class-action lawsuit against the Chinese company is in development by Russian milk providers, according to Ria Novosti on 17th of June 2019.
According to the words of the director of the development of electronic commerce of Russian Export Center, Alexey Murzenok, domestic dairy products suppliers realized that their trademarks were registered to a company in the city of Mudanjiang, soon after receiving the licenses for import to China. He added that there was no law violation and that Russian dairy factories “missed” the moment, and they were late with the registration. Alexey Murzenok also noted that the license was received in the end of December of last year, but the Chinese company registered the trademarks as their own this year, January 28th. He expressed hope that the People’s Republic of China could influence that company.
We remind you that in November 2018 Russia and China signed a number of protocols on reciprocal deliveries of dairy products and bird. The first batches of Russian milk were delivered to China in April 2019.” (translation from Russian)
I am going to express my opinion on this matter: companies from the Russian Federation will buy back their own trademarks and the discussion on them getting help in this matter is pointless, since the Chinese company did not violate any laws! Sounds strange and wild, doesn’t it? But that is the reality: patent rights in Europe and other parts of the world work, and very well. The legislative measures, such as fines or exemption of products, are employed against the violators of the patent rights. This is the reason why the preparation period in foreign trade activities plays an enormous role.
I will not describe this process using legal terms, but rather I will try to explain it using simple language, algorithms of registering trademarks and patents for industrial design. If I will start to explain these procedures using the official language and citing laws, it will not be clear and comfortable for understanding and analyzing information for final consumers. In the end a client will have an impression that these procedures are extremely complicated.
I address business owners who are ready to register a patent. It is not rational to explain that it is important or discuss that it can be done later because you can be sold your own trademarks and industrial designs.
There are already many cases like this, and out of political correctness our company will not give any names of companies and their owners.
Let’s start the introduction to patent security.
Patent security can be divided into a few blocks:
- Patents for trademarks
- Patents for industrial design
- Patents for inventions
A large majority of companies in the Russian Federation deal with sales from the INDIA to the European Union.
This is the reason why most patents in such companies are related to trademarks and industrial design.
Patents for inventions are not rare, but they are much less in number. This is why we decided to break patents into three types.
The next step is to understand in which European countries you want to distribute your products. A general patent for all of the European countries would only be useful to a company that deals with registering patents. Since it entails additional spending, registering a patent for all of Europe would only be profitable only to companies that sell all over Europe.
My advice is to register national patents for a few countries since that entails less money and less time. It is not accurate in the very least to say that you will sell massive quantities in all countries of Europe, unless you are Bill Gates or Robert Kiyosaki.
Then before sending your products to any parts of Europe you should apply for registering your trademark. You don’t have to wait for the “treasured paper” because even in case of some legal disagreements you have a priority since you applied for the registration of the trademark earlier than anyone else.
What could be the consequences if you don’t want to apply for registering your trademark?
I will tell you a real case and I will change the name of the company and its owner.
Company “A” from Europe registered a patent on the trademark “X” that did not belong to them and then filed a lawsuit against Russian company “B” saying that they are using someone else’s trademark.
The Russian company counter-sued, trying to “find the truth”.
Outcome: the company from the Russian Federation did not win any of the lawsuits and had to buy back their own trademark.
Why was the court favoring the European side? Don’t think that in Europe everyone is against everyone. There is a law saying that the first company applying for the patent is the right holder and no one is interested who sells what for how many years.
A similar situation is possible when it comes to industrial design. Let’s get an understanding of what “patent for industrial design” means.
There is only one meaning: it implies a design or a drawing, which does not take into account what the product is made of. Let’s take, for example, interior doors. It does not matter what it is made of: wood, plastic, paper. What matters is what it looks like: drawing on the glass panels, elements, and so on. In the section “ PATENT MARKET” you can see real trademarks and patents for industrial design.
From the very beginning we want to show a client what he will get as a result, to consult him that there is no need to patent the whole range of products, but only the minimum which is necessary in work.
Our company demonstrates with real examples how the work is done, without additional pressure on a client. We await your messages. Do not be shy to ask and receive information. It is better to know problems in the beginning and not later in the process and to minimize losses where possible.