The third consultation session of the Intellectual Property Advisory Office for exporters ends
The question of a manufacturer of current transformers concerned the need to check the new development of a current transformers exporter for the presence of someone else's patent rights.
The answer was given in relation to the countries of verification (the country of production and the country of export and possible re-export).
The answer was also given with regard to the objects of verification:
These are, first of all, inventions and utility models for the transformer design.
At the same time, checks are conducted in regard to patents describing blocks, structural elements, their mutual arrangement, the form of execution of elements and (or) the device as a whole; the relationship between blocks, elements, the form of communication between elements; parameters and other characteristics of elements and their relationship; the material from which the elements and (or) the device are made in general.
Patents for electrical circuits or block diagrams, based on which devices operate, are checked separately.
Then the industrial designs operating in the country of verification are checked. Thus, it is made sure if the appearance of the product is patently pure.
As it turned out, the manufacturer knows its European competitors and is primarily afraid of their patents. However, as it turned out, patents can be obtained in the name of universities cooperating with competitors, private individuals, or individual research companies, etc.
Separately, the answer highlighted the issues of infringement / non-infringement of patents, the validity of which, for some reason, is not supported by the copyright holder.
