Protecting your Designs in China

 

If you're manufacturing a designed product it is likely that you are already aware of all the ways you can legally protect your designs. But do you know if you are protected when you outsource your manufacturing?

In a nutshell if your patent, industrial design right or copyright is registered in any of the 173 countries contracted to the Paris Convention, you're covered. China is contracted to the Paris Convention and a member of the World Trade Organisation.

The Paris Convention was one of the first international intellectual property protection agreements, a predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organisation under the control of the United Nations, and subsequently included in the more recent Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights administered by the World Trade Organisation.

So what does this mean?

NOTHING, unless you are financially prepared to pursue any pirates for yourself, by which time the pirate may have made their money, ruined your product reputation, and disappeared in a blizzard of fake documentation.

Intellectual Property protection is very important to protect your rights to the profits of your product. And this protection works reasonably well within the law. But Pirates do not work within the law. Pirates can have come - made their money - and gone again before you have half a chance of enforcing your rights.

The best protection again piracy of your property is to work closely with people who have a successful track record of enforcing your rights, who know the dirty little schemes unscrupulous managers will try to make a quick buck out of other peoples' work.
We could write a book about this just from our personal experiences.
IP protection is a worthwhile investment, of course it is; however it can be likened to installing a burglar alarm on the side of your house, implying that you have something worth stealing.

In my professional opinion (as a Member of the Chartered Society of Designers, professional member of the American Society of Furniture Designers, member of Anti Copying in Design, etc), IP law largely exists to allow lawyers to buy large yachts and keep expensive girlfriends. The aforementioned British organisation, ACID, offers members several useful tools in the war against piracy, (click here to go to visit the ACID website now).

We at DUH have seen IP piracy time and time again. DUH partner Robert Carson can sniff out an untrustworthy factory manager at 1000 paces, a talent that can only be learnt through experience.
We have suffered piracy directly with our own DUH product designs where we have investigated and subsequently discovered the pirates, and put a dead stop to their business.

We have been there and done it; we know the sneaky schemes unscrupulous factory managers will use to profit from others' hard work; we know that IP protection can be worth about as much as the paper it is printed on.

If you want to protect your intellectual property:

• Start by engaging reputable outsourcing agents for whom your interests are their priority
• Agree and sign non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement with your outsourcing agent before you disclose any confidential information about your business or your products
• Make certain that your agent does the same with any manufacturer who is asked to quote for your products

As a designer, one of the most common questions I get asked is: “What is the best way to protect designs?” My answer is always the same: 1. Get your price right 2. Get your product to market quickly

Pirates only exist to make a fast buck, so if your product has wide market distribution, and is manufactured and distributed at a price which does not allow a pirate a reasonable mark-up, then what is the profit for the pirate?

The most effective way of achieving the most competitive price for your product is to engage a sourcing agency with a successful reputation and solid track record in your product field.

Company Websites and email messages can be deceptively wonderful - before committing always make the effort to speak with your agent by phone to get a good feel for the people in whom you will be entrusting your product reputation, your business reputation, and your money.

In favour of manufacturing in China is that piracy is taken seriously when a complaint is made and intellectual property rights are proven. Chinese authorities are keen to be seen as vigilant and proactive against piracy, especially when there is the risk of legitimate Chinese manufacturing jobs being lost as a direct result of piracy.
A typical jail term for IP piracy in China is seven years.
However the Chinese have this eternal love affair with bureaucracy, form filling and chains of responsibility - if you have a dispute, expect to grow old very quickly.
Better to use an expert agency that can anticipate trouble and avoid it.

 

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The above information is copyright property of Thomas Brian Bailie 2010
All information is written in good faith and the writer cannot accept liability for loss or injury that might result from the use of the information.