Coral Velvet Patent Stirs Up Textile Industry Nerves In Yangtze River Delta

In from November 18 to 22, 2008, the second China Patent week was in full swing in 31 provinces and municipalities across the country.

At this moment, for the textile enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, the "patent" two characters are extraordinarily heavy.

Together with the "patent gate" incident caused by coral corals, it stirred up the nerves of more than 200 textile and garment weaving enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta. Changshu Yushan Town chamber of Commerce said, "nearly 300 thousand industrial workers are facing unemployment, and nearly 10 billion of the market share will be handed over to others".

The "patent gate" incident came from several lawsuits recently submitted by VICCO holding group Limited by Share Ltd.

Since October 7th, Vico home textiles has prosecuted several enterprises such as Changshu pigeon ball printing and dyeing Co., Ltd. in Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places on the ground of "unauthorized use of its patented technology to produce and sell coral velvet blankets", calling for the cessation of infringement and compensation for losses.

Among them, a Jiangsu enterprise has already reached a settlement agreement with Vico through the court's initiative and agreed to stop the infringement immediately. If a similar incident happens again, it will compensate for ten times the amount of infringement sales. Another Hongkong based company has also taken the initiative to find Vic hopes to reach a settlement with Vico on the premise of recognition of infringement.

In October 30th, an appeal signed by "all enterprises in Changshu textile industry" directly pointed to "malicious litigation" and "damage to industry etiquette" of Vico, and considered that "coral velvet" is a public technology in the industry.

This is unexpected for Vic, who is committed to safeguarding rights, and a civil case is heating up rapidly.

In November 4th, Vico home textile published its book on textile industry on its official website, emphasizing that Victor maintained the legitimate rights and interests of patents through proper means, and pointed out that "do not think that enterprises can not live without counterfeiting and counterfeiting". The purpose of safeguarding rights is to "establish a more standardized competition order, restore the competitive edge of the international market, and jointly promote the upgrading of the textile industry as soon as possible."

This will undoubtedly push the "patent door", which has been widely concerned for a month, to the cusp of the storm again.

Shi Meixin, general manager of Vico holdings, Limited by Share Ltd general manager, told orient net: "we have mastered the infringement evidence of many enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and will continue to carry out the activism."

At the same time, he did not deny that the prosecution was "operating" with typical enterprises as a deterrent.

Coral coral: patent or public technology?

To be precise, coral corals should be called coral velvet blankets, which are popular because they are soft, glutinous, hot and excellent.

In May 2005, Victor applied for the invention patent of "a polyester super fine coral velvet blanket and its production method" to the State Property Office, and was granted the invention patent in July 26, 2006 (Patent No. ZL200510050367.5), enjoying the protection period of 20 years from the date of application.

Jin Bo, general manager of Limited by Share Ltd's warp knitting division, who has been involved in the development, said that since 2000, Vico was the first textile enterprise to develop and export coral corals. From raw materials, warping and weaving to dyeing and finishing, it consumed a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. After nearly 100 trials, the polyester superfine fiber blanket, the coral velvet blanket, was successfully launched.

After the product has been launched into the international market, the number of orders exceeds the company's production capacity.

In 2004 alone, the US market had sales of $40 million a year.

However, Changshu pigeon printing and dyeing Co., Ltd. believes that coral fleece and denim are public technologies, not Vico's unique R & D results.

In November 2nd, the pigeon ball company filed a request for invalidation of the patent right with the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office, requesting the cancellation of the "coral corvet" patent of VICCO.

"Patent application must be made public. Coral cork technology is a relatively long process from development, improvement to maturity. In addition, we have our own concerns and fear of being counterfeited." Jin Bo's remarks gave reasons why Vic applied for patents only 5 years after the first development of coral corals.

Wei Ke Wei right is a win-win situation. Ten years ago, Victor had independently developed a Raschel cotton blanket. The best year sold 1 million articles and sold nearly 200 million yuan.

Because of the weak sense of intellectual property protection, a Raschel cotton blanket dropped from 24 US dollars to US $10, which eventually led to the market being left at a low price and disorderly competition of counterfeit products.

Nowadays, there are few enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta doing export business of such blankets.

In 2005, shortly after Victor's "patent number" was labeled "coral velvet", Jin Bo received a 10% asking price from American customers. After that, a low price counterfeit product came back: a coral carpet of 300g, the retail price of US $29.99 to $59.99 in 2004, and in 2008, when the raw material exchange rate rose sharply, the US retail price dropped to 7.99 to $19.99.

"The road to safeguarding rights is imperative."

Shi Meixin said that many factors such as RMB appreciation, labor costs and rising raw material prices have made China's textile industry worse. But if it does not protect its rights, the market will be killed sooner or later.

"Our original intention is to become a strategic partner on the basis of respecting the legitimate rights and jointly develop the international market and jointly promote the upgrading of the textile industry."

Yang Jizhao, Secretary General of the China Textile Industry Association, agrees with Victor's "let the infringers become the strategic partners". Yang Jizhao said that there is no compromise between protecting intellectual property rights and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises. China is really becoming a textile power and relies on two breakthroughs in innovation and brand.