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Danfoss Online Open Day

Create Time:2022-06-24

Quality Brands Protection Committee of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (QBPC) launched its 2022 "Member Open Day" activities on June 9. The first stop was at Danfoss, a global leading manufacturer in the field of digitalization and electrification, shared its experience in patent agency management and IP rights protection. Jayden You, Vice Chair of Member Services Committee, presided over the meeting. Over 80 member representatives participated online.

 

Mr. Xue Li, Danfoss Vice President and Head of Public Relations, introduced the history, mission and development of the company. Since its establishment in Denmark in 1933, Danfoss has integrated innovation, entrepreneurship, and courage into its DNA. The company put its focus on energy saving and efficiency improvement in the power system as early as 1970 and advanced its business in three segments – Danfoss Power Solutions, Danfoss Climate Solutions and Danfoss Drives. As the global megatrends transforming the world, i.e., the digitalization, electrification, urbanization, increasing needs in food/water supply and climate change, Danfoss’s business grew rapidly. Its investment in innovation was kept at the leading level in the industrial manufacturing industry. Till the end of 2020, Danfoss had accumulated 1567 patent rights and gained rich experience in patent and brand protection.

 

Ms. Sunny Lin, Danfoss Patent Manager and Head of IP shared their practices in the selection and management of patent agencies. According to Sunny, there was no universal solution in selecting the agencies. It must be customized according to the company's own conditions. In Danfoss’s case, the IP department handled all IP related issues of different types, which required numerous agencies. Meanwhile the B2B nature of its products increased the difficulty in investigation and evidence obtention. Therefore,Danfoss adopted a complementary agent selection strategy. They chose to sign one large agency with all-round capacity and wide business coverage while engaging a small or medium-sized agency that was good at patent writing and OA response. Furthermore they hired several senior patent agents/lawyers to handle tricky problems and litigation cases. In addition, Danfoss formed a standardized selection process with a set of tools and templates to help with data collection, evaluation and decision making.

Sunny also shared the key points in choosing agencies for patent protection and invalidity. She pointed out that conflict of interest had become frequent in recent years. The company and the agencies should work together to prevent it from happening before the start of a case. She also gave detailed suggestions on how to select investigation companies, litigation lawyers and administrative law enforcement lawyers. In terms of choosing the patent invalidity agency, Sunny shared her opinions from perspectives of the patentee as well as the invalidity requestor. In addition, Sunny listed specific cases and problems in agency selection and management to inspire in-depth discussions with members.

Ms. Lulu Miao, Anti-counterfeiting Consultant of Danfoss, introduced a brand protection case involving the refurbishment of second-hand Danfoss compressors. She briefly explained the conceptual distinction between "second-hand renovation" and "infringing counterfeits". She said that renovation did not necessarily mean counterfeiting, and the judgment should be made in consideration of the product, industry, degree of renovation and other relevant circumstances. The refurbished compressors mentioned in the case had not yet reach their life span. After going through the process of preliminary investigation, criminal investigation, returning for supplementary investigation, the procuratorate hearing and so on, the procuratorate concluded that the refurbishment in the case did not change the core components of the products, the re-label did not constitute confusion, the suspects were first offenders and informed their customers of the "second-hand" status, and so decided not to sue.

Reflecting on the case, Lulu said that when dealing with refurbishment cases, there should be a thorough plan on evidence collection and a strike at the entire chain. There were usually three parties in the refurbishment distribution: the manufacturers (second-hand refurbishment workshops), the distributors and the end consumers. In the shared case, the fact that manufacturer claimed the second-hand nature of the product only covered his deal with the distributor. Since the criminal investigation did not target at the distributors, the procuratorate regarded the distributors as end consumers that had not been cheated, which led to the failure of this case. In addition, Lulu suggested seeking support from the technical department on the interpretation of the core components, closely following up the progress of the case, proving the subjective intention of the suspect and choosing the jurisdiction wisely. Though the case was not a success as a criminal case and only resulted in administrative punishment, it provided valuable experience for subsequent cases.

 

Jayden You delivered concluding remarks. He said that Danfoss’s emphasis on innovation had made it part of its DNA and the company accumulated rich experience in the protection of its IP rights. The sharing contained successful experience and lessons learned, which were inspiring for members. The progress of the industry relied on the generous sharing by each member. He thanked Danfoss and the participants for their support to MSC activities and informed everyone to stay tuned for the following events.