Legal Daily: Sany Heavy Industry is full of confidence in responding to the US 337 investigation

Source: Legal Daily Reporter: Zhang Wei

Despite the U.S. Section 337 investigation, Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sany Heavy Industry) is not worried about the fate of the future market in the United States. On the 14th, the relevant person in charge of Sany Heavy Industry told the "Legal Daily" reporter at the "Implementing Intellectual Property Strategy to Support Innovation-Driven Development Central Media Local Tour" interview group and Hunan enterprise symposium that they were full of confidence in winning the 337 investigation, especially the part involving patents.

The deployment of patents puts competitive pressure on opponents

On July 11, local time in the United States, this is the day when Trinity's appeal to US President Barack Obama was dismissed. Coincidentally, it was also on this day that due to the American familycraneThe company complained, and the U.S. International Trade Commission announced the launch of a Section 337 investigation of crawler crane products manufactured by Sany Heavy Industry to determine whether these products infringed the patent rights of the U.S. company.

Under Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930, the U.S. International Trade Commission has the authority to investigate complaints of patent and registered trademark infringement. If the company is found to have violated this provision, the U.S. International Trade Commission will issue an exclusion order and an injunction for the relevant product, i.e., the relevant product will be completely disqualified from being sold in the U.S. market.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, the number of 337 investigations involving Chinese companies accepted by the U.S. International Trade Commission has been increasing year by year, and in the first half of 2012 alone, the United States launched 25 337 investigations involving Taiwan and the mainland, accounting for 86.2% of the total number of investigations.

In this context, it seems that it is not impossible to say that Sany Heavy Industry "hit the muzzle of the gun". However, in the view of Sany Heavy Industry, "it is better to come early than late", the person in charge said, and the competitive pressure brought to the opponent is the fundamental reason behind the launch of the 337 investigation.

The strength of Sany Heavy Industry has increased in recent years, which is obvious to all. According to the person in charge, independent innovation is the support point for its increasingly strong competitiveness. Sany Heavy Industry's "patent boosts the take-off of enterprises" has become a typical example of enterprises benefiting after the implementation of China's intellectual property strategy. It is understood that Sany Heavy Industry will spend 7% of its sales revenue on research and development, and has a *5652 technology development center and a postdoctoral mobile workstation. At present, Sany Group has applied for a total of 6,857 patents in China. 339 international applications. It has been authorized 4,547 domestic patents and 16 overseas patents.

With the enhancement of strength, Sany Heavy Industry's market has expanded overseas. What is particularly striking is that in 2012, Sany Heavy Industry staged a "big show" of "snake swallowing elephant": the successful acquisition of the world-renowned construction machinery manufacturer Putzmeister of Germany. According to Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany Heavy Industry, "the deployment of 2,457 Chinese patents and 103 international patents of Sany Heavy Industry is an important bargaining chip in this overseas acquisition negotiation." ”

And these seem to be footnotes to the trouble caused by Sany Heavy Industry.

Risks have been assessed and determined to be avoidable

It is undeniable that for powerful Chinese companies that want to explore the U.S. market, it is particularly important to avoid intellectual property rights becoming their weakness.

Manitowoc, the complainant in the Section 337 investigation, alleges that Sany Heavy Industry's SCC8500 cranes and their components are infringing products, and that the plagiarism of these patents and trade secrets is related to John Lanning, a former employee of Maktowak. Lanning is one of the largest peak crawler crane engineers in the United States, serving Manitowoc for 24 years. Last year he was hired as the designer of Sany Crane. The purpose of hiring John Lanning is believed to be to obtain trade secrets from Maktowak and to confirm that John Lanning had illegally leaked these patents to Sany. Sany refuted Manitowoc's accusations, claiming that the alleged products were designed using its own technology.

Ran Ruixue, a partner at JunHe Law Offices in Beijing and a registered lawyer in China and New York, told reporters that most of the Section 337 investigations against Chinese companies in the United States, especially trade secret investigations, are triggered by personnel turnover, and many companies are not aware of such risks in the future when they absorb the employees of competitors.

When Sany Heavy Industry hired Lanning, the person in charge said that "we have made early warnings, but after in-depth analysis and full assessment, it is determined that the above risks can be avoided."

At the same time, he said that although they are confident in the results of the 337 investigation, they will be more cautious in recruiting such foreign employees in the future.

Today, Sany Heavy Industry is actively preparing to respond to the lawsuit. It is revealed that Sany Heavy Industry has filed a request for invalidation of the other party's patent in China, and is also very confident to prove that its patent is different from the patent claimed by the other party, and in addition, the other party is also suspected of infringing Sany's patent rights.

In the process of Chinese enterprises going global, the experience of Sany Heavy Industry is a mirror. The person in charge said, "Overseas patent applications must be in place, so that we can have a fist to compete with competitors; The internal intellectual property risk warning of enterprises should also be in place; In addition, domestic companies entering the international market must be familiar with local laws. ”