Throughout the process of going global, Chinese enterprises have increasingly emphasized intellectual property protection and adopted intellectual property strategies according to their own situations, said executives of some IP-intensive companies in Guangdong province.
ZTE Corp, a major Chinese information and communications technology provider based in Shenzhen, has regarded IP as a key strategy in its innovation-driven growth for many years, according to Shen Nan, vice-president and chief IP officer of the company.
He said ZTE has filed nearly 70,000 patent applications to date, with more than 25,000 patents being authorized by authorities around the world.
"The numbers mean that we are one of the leaders in terms of IP, not only in the ICT industry, but also in the nation," Shen said, adding that the company is also a leader in some specific fields worldwide.
He said ZTE was recently rated No 1 in the field of Internet of Things worldwide by the Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom.
In 2015, the company ranked third in international patent applications via the Patent Cooperation Treaty, a rank it held for six consecutive years, Shen said.
Recalling the past two decades of IP operations, Hu Yi, chief IP counsel at ZTE, said the company has accumulated rich experiences and evolved from a defensive position into an active player and even a setter of regulations.
"At first, we were not familiar with IP-related laws and rules, we didn't even know what IP was," Hu said.
However, he said, IP is an issue that nobody can avoid in overseas operations. Hu said ZTE is the Chinese enterprise that has faced the largest number of IP disputes in the past few years, including more than 180 lawsuits overseas and about 60 at home.
"We have more IP disputes overseas because we are a global company," Hu said, explaining that ZTE now has more business revenue coming in from overseas than from China.
Along with its growing strength in IP development and overseas operations, ZTE has increased its competence in dealing with international IP disputes.
"As ZTE itself is the holder of a large number of patents, we are in a better position to hold dialogues and cooperate with other overseas patent holders," Hu said.
"We now perform better in markets with stricter IP regulations," Hu said, adding that the markets are more helpful for enterprises like ZTE who focus on innovation and IP protection.
Executives of China Star Optoelectronics Technology, a leading Chinese liquid-crystal display manufacturer based in Shenzhen, said their company also highlights cooperation in international IP operations.
The company, which was founded in 2009, has filed nearly 19,000 patent applications in the past several years and is now the holder of more than 4,480 authorized patents.
Che Hanshu, vice-president of CSOT, said the LCD market was dominated by South Korean and Japanese players for about a decade until facilities in China were launched by CSOT and Beijing Oriental Electronics in the late 2000s.
"As a latecomer, we emphasize self-development, respect intellectual property rights and observe laws and regulations more than anybody else," Che said.
He said the company is now a major LCD provider for renowned overseas TV manufacturers such as Samsung and Sony.
"We are all major patent holders in the global LCD industry," Che said, adding that CSOT and its partners have developed an effective IP cooperation system based on cross-licensing of patents.
"We haven't had a single IP dispute in the international market to date," Che stressed.
Meizu Technology, a major smartphone and mobile phone manufacturer based in Zhuhai, took another approach in its international IP operations.
According to Liu Qun, vice-president for the company's legal affairs, smartphones are the most patent-intensive sector as more than 100,000 invention patents are involved in a single unit.
He said this makes the industry more sensitive to IP disputes.
"We have filed more than 1,000 patent applications annually in recent years, but this is still a small number," Liu said.
Liu said Meizu is now actively dealing with overseas disputes with "reasonable, constructive dialogues".
"We hope justice organizations in various countries, including China, can be more innovative in solving IP-related disputes. We have seen progress, though, such as new measures to solve the repeated charging of patent licensing fees," Liu said.
His advice to China's fledgling players is to avoid entering certain overseas markets with strict IP regulations until they have become more competent in IP development and more familiar with overseas rules and laws.
China has become a major power in the world's IP sector, as the number of its patent applications reached 1.1 million last year, according to a recent report by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
This was the first time that a nation's patent filings surpassed the 1 million benchmark, said the report, adding that China had topped the WIPO ranking list of patent applications for five consecutive years.
By Zhao Shijun
Source: China Daily
zhaoshijun@chinadaily.com.cn
