After LED enterprises obtain patent rights, if they find suspected infringement of patent rights in the market, how should they protect their rights? Specifically, patent protection is divided into five steps.

The first step is to confirm the validity of rights. Valid patents are the basis of all rights protection, because after the patent is authorized, annual fees must be paid to the State Intellectual Property Office every year. If the patent owner forgets to pay the annual fee, the patent will be invalid. Therefore, the right holder should always pay attention to the legal status of his patent.

The second step is to conduct infringement comparison. Confirm whether the alleged infringing product falls within the scope of patent protection. The so-called infringement comparison refers to comparing the technical features of the alleged infringing product with the technical features described in the patent claims. Only when the technical features of the alleged infringing product are exactly the same as the technical features described in the claims, completely covered, or there are several features that are different but constitute equal, there is infringement. If the technical features of the alleged infringing product are less than the technical features described in the claims or some features are different, it does not constitute infringement. It should be emphasized that when conducting infringement comparison, the alleged infringing product is compared with the patent technical features.

The third step is to confirm the stability of rights. According to the relevant provisions of the current Patent Law, the National Intellectual Property Administration will only conduct substantive examinations on invention patents when conducting patent application examinations, and only conduct formal examinations on utility models and designs, that is, it will not examine whether utility models and designs have the same or similar structures and designs before the application date. Therefore, before the patentee conducts rights protection, he must first confirm the stability of the patent right. To confirm the stability of the patent right, he can search and analyze the prior patents by himself or entrust an agency, or he can entrust the National Intellectual Property Administration to issue a rights evaluation report. It takes about 2 months to issue the evaluation report.

The fourth step is to obtain evidence. The core point of the case is to compare the alleged infringing product with the patent technical features; at the same time, the patentee should also collect other evidence of infringement, such as the sales volume of the alleged infringing product, the profit of the infringer, the loss of the patentee, the nature and circumstances of the infringement, etc., to confirm the amount of the claim.

Fifth, take rights protection measures. Patent rights protection usually takes the following three forms: administrative complaints to the patent authority, lawsuits to the court, and reports to the customs for exported products. Let's talk about administrative complaints first. For design, you can report to the Rapid Rights Protection Center, which will require the product to be removed from the shelves. If it is an invention patent or utility model, you should complain to the Intellectual Property Office. If you sue the court, you should use some litigation. Before or during the lawsuit, you can apply to the court for a pre-trial injunction to prohibit the infringer from continuing to commit infringement. For export products, you can also report to the customs. It is recommended that the patent owner first register the patent with the customs for intellectual property rights.