How does China's vape brand break through the blockade of patents?

90% of the world's electronic cigarettes are produced in China. In the past 10 years, the development of China's electronic cigarette industry has not been the same. After the domestic brands went out to sea, they have attracted more and more attention in the process of competing with overseas brands.

Because Chinese companies don't pay much attention to intellectual property rights, they are more concerned with business and production, so the first electronic cigarette was born in China, but the related patents for electronic cigarettes are few, which also led to Chinese electronics. When smoke brands compete with foreign countries, they are vulnerable to patent weakness.

In early October, Juul Labs of the United States filed a complaint against six Chinese vape companies, claiming that their vape products and components exported to the US, imported in the US, or sold in the US infringed Juul Labs’ patent rights to US international trade. The Commission (ITC) submits an application and issues a limited exclusion order and a restraining order.

According to the inquiry, Juul Lab mentioned that the four US patents involved in the 337 investigation were successively authorized in August and September this year. It can be seen that American companies can't wait to pick up patent weapons to attack competitors.

On October 25th, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, China Electronics Chamber of Commerce and Shenzhen Fair Trade Promotion Agency jointly held a response meeting to discuss the allegations of Juul Labs.

Coincidentally, on November 21st, Juul Labs filed an application with ITC to initiate a 337 investigation into five Chinese vape companies and issue a limited exclusion order and a prohibition order.

And more than two months ago, the heating and non-burning electronic cigarette IQOS company Philip Morris International in Japan to the company to heat the non-burning electronic cigarette glory British American Tobacco Group initiated a patent infringement lawsuit, the two major industry giants of the patent war Opening the curtain.

Vapes have been upgraded many times, and the number of patents is huge. Only Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco Group and other major industry giants have reached tens of thousands of patents in the world. In particular, Philip Morris International's patents in the subdivision of heating non-combustible electronic cigarettes cover a variety of ways to achieve.

After more than a decade of development, China's vape branding process has accelerated, and these patent issues pose a serious threat to China's vape brand exports. Faced with such a high risk of patent infringement, how should companies face it?

Whether it is in the face of the 337 patent infringement investigation or the patent infringement lawsuit, the enterprise must first confirm whether its products have infringed the patent rights of the other party.

The work done to determine whether a product infringes a patent is called a patent infringement analysis. The infringement judgment involves the three principles of “Comprehensive Coverage Principle”, “Equivalent Principle” and “Prohibition of Eradication Principle”. To put it simply, if a claim includes the three characteristics of A, B, and C, and the product in question also includes A, B, C (or also includes D, etc.), then the product is suspected of falling into the right to the corresponding patent. The scope of protection required.

It should be noted that the patent infringement judgment is a very rigorous work. It requires the patent attorney to understand the characteristics of the infringing product and understand the patent claims in the premise of proficiency in the legal basis of patent infringement judgment and rich judicial practice. The content and technical solutions in the manual, combined with the review record, ultimately based on the principle of judgment to make a conclusion on whether or not to infringe. If the company is concerned about the hidden dangers of patent infringement in the product being developed, it may entrust a professional institution to conduct an infringement analysis/FTO (free implementation) investigation to clarify whether the underlying product has the risk of infringement and the patents that may be infringed, so as to avoid the design in advance. And patent invalidation and other countermeasures to avoid causing serious economic losses to enterprises.

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