PHILPS executives justify patent storm: patent fees are not high

In PHILPS's intellectual property and standard (China) general manager, Haick ASJA view, due to the global changes in the business model, the patent has become a very important asset of the company, the enthusiasm of enterprises in Europe and America in the protection of intellectual property rights is greatly increased, China enterprises must learn the patent market rules of the game.

Previously, PHILPS and Chinese enterprises has been in DVD, CD and GSM mobile phone patent battle continued: because not settled with PHILPS on the CD patent authorization number China CD enterprise products have been unable to enter the EU market; while in the mobile phone patents, PHILPS in Germany before the prosecution Taiwan Dbtel, forcing the Taiwan dam e have to reduce exports to the EU mobile phone; and its China with DVD enterprises in the patent fee of the conflict is excited.

But for these confrontation, PHILPS has maintained a low profile, ASJA hack side to take care of China enterprises and the public mood, on the other hand, he must also maintain patent licensing policy and the interests of PHILPS.

In September 29th, ASJA hack think it is time to speak out, he accepted the reporter's interview in Shanghai.

Patent fee is not high"

"Twenty-first Century": just two weeks ago, several Chinese CD enterprises with PHILPS in Shanghai was authorized a patent negotiations, these enterprises responsible person complained that PHILPS on patent fee is too high, how do you evaluate this argument?

Azya Heike: I think we are not a high patent fees, in the global market, our patent licensing program has been implemented for many years, but also in litigation has been recognized by many of the world's courts.

We must maintain a unified patent fee standard in the global market, because we want to receive antitrust constraints, so we can't give any discount, also can not discriminate against any company, in fact we are standard patent fees from time to time will be adjusted.

Our technology is good, many companies waiting in line for our patent license.

"Twenty-first Century": the domestic optical disc enterprises and some mobile phone companies also complained that PHILPS patent package in the way of authorization, the existence of repeated licensing issues, how do you explain this problem?

Azya Heike: in fact, our patents take the patent packages way, our patent packages are also available to all people, from the manufacturers can according to their own needs to choose, as long as the choice of the appropriate kit, will not produce patent waste problem, so is a duplicate license if things do not. We repeat the authorization, that is a misunderstanding.

"Twenty-first Century": in addition to the collection of royalties, you mentioned in front of me that you are a major work in China engaged in counterfeiting activities, how do you do this work?

Azya Heike: the fight against fake and shoddy products, the work is well done, we recognize that the China of fake and shoddy products is more serious, from the European Union and the United States Customs statistics show that from China year of fake and shoddy products have considerable growth.

In China, we have five or six staff members are responsible for cracking down on fake and shoddy products. In addition, we in the country there are more than and 20 agents, we pay for these people, they help us to fight against fake and shoddy products, they learned that fake, then tell us, then we contact with the public security, industry and commerce departments, to fight against fake and shoddy products with the governmental cooperation.

This work is very difficult, we often encounter.

Twenty-first Century: it sounds like a mystery. How many cases can you find in a year in China?

Azya Heike: about a year there are hundreds of such cases, confiscated counterfeit products every year there are tens of millions of dollars, but you want to fight this fake is quite difficult, such as some fake lighting products, they are not labeled at the time of production, and exported to Indonesia and other places, and then paste on the PHILPS label, so we implement is very difficult.

In addition, we also encountered a number of fake PHILPS does not produce products: such as refrigerators, computers.

When making a negative asset"

"Twenty-first Century": what is your point of focus in China, as the world's second largest knowledge patent owned company, PHILPS a year from the patent license income?

Azya Heike: I was trained in a key China work, we should train their own team, our team is 95% Chinese, but legal talent in the China aspects of intellectual property rights is still quite lacking, so we have to carry out the protection of intellectual property rights in terms of training for employees. In addition, I would like to do some cross licensing and crack down on fake and shoddy products. I report directly to PHILPS headquarters.

It is difficult to quantify the revenue of patents, such as cross licensing, shares, but it is difficult to quantify the amount of revenue from patent licensing in 2004 is about four hundred million or five hundred million euros.

"Twenty-first Century": your department, the work is how to assess it?

Azya Heike: Based on our requirements are: the first is the number of patents, patent we declared in a year's global minimum to reach 3000, specific to each country depends on the specific situation; the other one is confiscated many fake and shoddy products, it also depends on how much the loss of the company's market share.