Guangzhou Intellectual Property Lawyer

When discovering trademark infringement, the following measures can be taken: 1) Preserve evidence — collect and preserve evidence of the infringing products, sales channels, sales volume, etc., preferably through notarization; 2) Send a lawyers letter — formally demand the infringing party to stop the infringement and compensate for losses; 3) Administrative complaint — file a complaint with the market supervision department (intellectual property bureau), requesting administrative investigation and penalties; 4) Platform complaint — if it occurs on an e-commerce platform, file a complaint with the platform to remove the infringing listings; 5) Litigation — file a trademark infringement lawsuit with the court, requesting the other party to stop infringement, eliminate impact, and compensate for losses.

The determination of IP infringement compensation generally follows the following order: 1) Actual losses of the right holder — calculated based on the reduction in sales caused by infringement and the unit profit of the infringed product; 2) Illegal gains of the infringer — calculated based on the sales volume of the infringing product multiplied by unit profit; 3) Reasonable multiple of royalties — if the above two are difficult to determine, reference the multiple of reasonable royalties; 4) Statutory compensation — if none of the above can be determined, the court may sentence compensation below 5 million yuan (trademark and copyright) based on the circumstances of the infringement. In recent years, courts have been increasing the intensity of IP compensation awards and supporting punitive damages for malicious infringements.

A trademark is a legal concept — it refers to a mark registered with the trademark office that obtains exclusive rights and is protected by the Trademark Law. A brand is a marketing concept — it includes brand name, brand logo, brand reputation, brand image, etc., and is the overall perception formed by consumers about a product or service. A registered trademark is the legal foundation of a brand; without trademark registration, a brand cannot obtain sufficient legal protection. Registering a trademark is the first step in building a brand and the most basic means of protecting brand value.

Under normal circumstances, a trademark registration application goes through the following stages: formality examination (about 1 month), substantive examination (about 5-6 months), preliminary examination approval and announcement (3 months opposition period), and registration certificate issuance (about 1-2 months after the announcement period expires with no opposition). The entire process takes about 9-12 months. If the trademark office issues an office action or if there is an opposition during the announcement period, the time will be extended. The validity period of a registered trademark is 10 years, calculated from the date of approval registration, and may be renewed upon expiration.

Under the Copyright Law, using a work without the permission of the copyright owner, in violation of the conditions for use stipulated by law, and infringing on the personal or property rights of the copyright owner constitutes copyright infringement. Common forms include: unauthorized reproduction, distribution, performance, broadcasting, exhibition, compilation, and information network dissemination of others works. Plagiarism of others works, pirated copies of books and audio-visual products, unauthorized use of online images and articles, etc., are all typical copyright infringements. The innocent party can demand that the infringer stop the infringement, eliminate the impact, apologize, and compensate for losses.

Trade secrets include technical information and business information that are not known to the public, have commercial value, and for which the right holder has taken corresponding confidentiality measures. To protect trade secrets, enterprises should: 1) Clearly define the scope of trade secrets and mark confidential information; 2) Establish a confidentiality management system and take physical and technical confidentiality measures; 3) Sign confidentiality agreements with employees and partners; 4) Limit access to confidential information on a need-to-know basis; 5) Conduct regular confidentiality education and training. When trade secrets are infringed, legal action can be taken through civil litigation, administrative complaints, or even criminal reporting if the circumstances are serious.

For IP infringement on e-commerce platforms, the following measures can be taken: 1) Platform complaint — file an IP infringement complaint through the platforms intellectual property protection system, requesting removal of infringing product listings; 2) Lawyer letter — send a formal lawyer letter to the infringing seller demanding immediate cessation of infringement and compensation for losses; 3) Notarization and evidence preservation — notarize the infringing product pages and transaction records as evidence for subsequent rights protection; 4) Administrative complaint — report to the market supervision department for investigation and punishment; 5) Litigation — if the infringement is serious or the losses are large, file a lawsuit with the court to demand cessation of infringement and compensation for losses.

Yes. Computer software can be protected through multiple IP channels: 1) Copyright protection — software code is automatically protected by copyright as a literary work upon creation, and can also be registered with the Copyright Office; copyright mainly protects the expression form of the software; 2) Patent protection — software-related inventions (algorithms, methods, systems, etc.) can apply for invention patents; patent protection is stronger, protects the technical solution itself, but requires application and examination; 3) Trade secret protection — source code and core algorithms can also be protected as trade secrets; 4) Trademark protection — software product names and logos can be protected by trademark registration. Different protection methods have different scopes and durations, and a combination of multiple methods is usually required to build a complete protection system.