Today’s Post will focus on Patent Strategies for Startups in South-East Asia and has been kindly drafted for us by Ms. Chan Wai Yeng who is a patent specialist at Taylor Vinters Via LLC. Ms. Chan Wai Yeng will explore three patent strategies and several alternatives to ensure your product is best protected.
Startups generally worry that acquiring a patent is prohibitively expensive
As discussed in the first patent article, the cost of patenting is high and generally several order of magnitudes higher than the cost of acquiring other IP rights such as trade mark and industrial design rights.
A cohesive patent strategy can yield significant competitive advantage
The high level of financial investment involved in patent filing may deter startups from developing a comprehensive IP strategy that includes patent filings at its initial development stage. However, startups with a cohesive patent strategy that aligns with their business can benefit from gaining a strong competitive advantage in the market. Having a patent filing strategy can also mitigate litigation risks from competitors.
Have a question about Copyright protection in China? Today’s blog post will provide you an answer. Our China IPR SME Helpdesk expert Mr. Charles Feng from East & Concord Partners based in Beijing has kindly drafted for us a very useful and informative blog post on Copyright Protection in China. In this comprehensive Copyright Guide, presented in Q&A format, you will be able to find answers about how to register Copyright in China, what rights do you have in China and how you can enforce these rights. 
Before even starting to prepare your trade mark registration application in China, it is vital to be sure that an identical or similar trade mark hasn’t been already registered in China. Today’s blog post is a step-by-step guide to how to use the China Trade Mark Office (CTMO) database to conduct preliminary trade mark research yourself.
Trade fairs in South-East Asia provide European SMEs with the opportunity to present their innovations and ideas to potential business partners and customers whilst also allowing them to learn from and collaborate with other innovators. There is, however, a risk in that disclosing their innovations to the public may leave them exposed to third parties copying and infringing their IP. Infringement of innovations may not necessarily be straightforward ‘counterfeiting’ – i.e. exact product, packaging and brand imitation. It is more likely that competitors could be using, intentionally or otherwise, a certain part of a European SME’s product or innovation. It is therefore advisable to be as diligent as possible and to get to know your competitors’ products.