China Offers Legal Help Booth at CES to Address IPR Injunctions
The Chinese government will offer legal services through “an intellectual property service station” at the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 7-10 in Las Vegas in order to respond to intellectual property rights infringement injunctions, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a notice, according to an unofficial translation. “The service station employs American practicing lawyers from well-known American law firms to provide exhibitors with free legal advisory services on intellectual property rights and assist enterprises in resolving intellectual property infringement disputes,” the ministry said.
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American companies in recent years have used emergency temporary injunctions to force seizures during past conferences, the ministry said. “Chinese companies as defendants should have sufficient time to refute infringement lawsuits to the court, but during the CES, American companies will declare that CES has only four days, and Chinese companies will leave after the end, so they can go to the court,” it said. The ministry also provided the phrase in English that Chinese exhibitors should use for police that attempt to seal up a booth: “We will cooperate with you. We have lawyers who represent us. So before you seize our products, we would like to speak with our lawyer.” Upon contact, one of the lawyers will rush to the scene, the ministry said.
The Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco, the Ministry of Commerce and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade jointly established the service station.