This is a subject that I feel very strongly about. In an era of easy global visibility and widespread travel, protection of IP remains a key business challenge. As a business, we invest considerable time and money in developing numerous new product ideas and designs, which we aim to rigorously protect. The investment this requires is often underestimated. We have a substantial product development team committed to a large volume of new design and product creation, and this takes considerable time and cost, with investment in resource, prototyping, tooling and travel. In my experience, the majority of suppliers in China do not innovate, certainly in our sector, and the majority of new product development and ideas come from companies such as ourselves that take pride in creating and delivering great new products to our customers year on year. That isn’t to say that all the products we offer are new or unique, but very many are.
Venues like trade shows in China provide a platform for many factories to claim other people’s ideas and products as their own. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve met a company who has claimed to be making products for me, even though I’ve never even met or visited them before! Some people perceive that if a product is displayed in such a venue that it must be freely available, but that is simply not the case, and European patent and design rules still hold sway when infringing items appear in European markets. Just because a product is seen as available from one or more suppliers, it doesn’t mean it isn’t protected. As is the case case in general law, innocence is no defence. Without creativity from companies like ours, there would be far fewer innovative products in the market – copies are parasites feeding off our creative investment.
We continue to design and create a wealth of new products for our customers, and it should also be of some comfort to them that we always aim to protect our IP if it is infringed by third parties.