In order to disseminate IP rights-related knowledge that Chinese employees of Japanese enterprises require in their daily routines, Watson & Band (hereinafter “W&B”) and the Japan External Trade Organization Shanghai Office (hereinafter “JETRO”) are jointly hosting a series of lectures for Chinese employees of Japanese enterprises from August to November 2015. For this purpose, W&B has commenced active preparations in June and has assigned its best internal resources to the lectures by assigning them to partners with extensive related practice experience. The first of four lectures, entitled “Patent Infringement Litigation Practices”, was presented by W&B partner Jianguo Huang. The lecture was held in the third conference room on the third floor of the Shanghai International Trade Conference Center on the morning of August 26^th, 2015.

Jianguo Huang has been specializing in patent litigation since 2007. During more than a decade of practice he has provided litigation-related legal services for many Fortune Global 500 enterprises and well-known domestic enterprises. One of the cases that he represented was selected by the Supreme People’s Court as a landmark case for the year. During the lecture Mr. Huang focused on three topics: (i) a summary of patent infringement determination, (ii) the scope of protection of patent rights, and (iii) rules for determining patent infringement. Mr. Huang cited three of W&B’s typical patent infringement cases – one involving an invention patent for an electromagnetic valve, one involving an invention patent for a sewing machine, and one involving a design patent for cup packaging -- and provided a detailed analysis of related legal practices. He also elaborated on issues that must be addressed in patent enforcement actions from the perspective of determination of patent infringement.

Representatives from Japanese enterprises showed great interest in the two-and-a-half-hour lecture and were active in raising questions. After the lecture many spoke with Mr. Huang and expressed great enthusiasm towards the way of lecturing by him.

It is worth noting that this series of lectures is the second professional training program hosted through cooperation between W&B and JETRO. The first training program last year was provided for junior executives in Japanese enterprises. It focused on basic knowledge as well as responses and countermeasures to patent and trademark applications, trade secrets and counterfeiting issues. This year’s program will be designed for mid-level managers and is designed to provide Chinese employees in Japanese enterprises with an overall command of IP rights and counterfeit products. The subsequent three lectures will focus on hot issues in the IP rights field including unfair competition, technical development contracts and enforcement strategies for counterfeit products on the Internet. These lectures will complete a veritable smorgasbord of IP rights training initiatives for representatives of the target enterprises.