Woods won the game, Nike is the winner?

Tiger Woods wins major in 11 years

Tiger Woods, who was called a golf emperor in the 2000s, won the US professional golf major title in 11 years. Woods has been sluggish after winning the US Open in 2008, and it was hard for him to win the general tour because of several other bad news including injuries. But the Masters championship has been a great victory, everyone’s paying attention whether Woods will break Jack Nicklaus’s record for most wins in the championship.

pixabay.acom

Woods won the game, and Nike get the benefits?

Woods won a lot of championship prizes. But it's called "Nike," which has got the greatest gain in the championship. Nike is the exclusive sponsor of Woods, who won many intangible benefits as he continued to be exposed to the Nike brand in clothes and hats when he won. Woods has also won a green jacket as a Masters champion in 14 years, and the impression coming from it is that he believes Nike will be able to increase its brand value. Nike will be worth about W25.5bn when it comes to profiting from winning the tournament.

flickr.com ©daniel julia lundgren

Marketing Sports star that can be a double-edged sword

Brand marketing using sports stars does not always bring good results. A player who wears a sponsored brand of equipment or clothes may give bad grades, or the image may fall at the moment of failure of brand equipment. In 2018, the most prospective athlete in the U.S. College Basketball Final was injured in a shattering outsole after a Nike basketball game in 33 seconds, making it one of the worst things that made Nike's image worse.

pixabay.com

 Inseparable sports and trademarks

As mentioned above, there may be some disadvantages, however, because every time a sport game is broadcasted on TV, the brand that is worn by the athletes and clothing is exposed to the media. It is said that the more popular sport event and the more famous and well-known players make the cost for trademark exposure sky-rocketting because the trademark is frequently exposed by them. Still, many companies seem to want to sign their brands with famous sports clubs or athletes because of the benefits of getting a lot of profits like the relationship between Nike and Woods.

'Chyson', trademark not valid

China's wireless cleaner, Chyson

'Chyson' is a coined word created by China 'China' and 'Dyson', a famous British vacuum cleaner brand. Although Dyson is very expensive, many people are interested in the convenience of wireless cleaners, and Chinese companies have produced many products similar to Dyson cleaners. In the early days of production, the quality was far behind and the public did not pay attention, but with the improvement of technology, Chinese products showed performance which is not bad compared to price, and the public called the products as 'Chyson'.

naver.com > shopping channel
Search result of '차이슨(Chyson)'

‘차이슨’ (Korean language of Chyson) Trademark registered in Korea; 

A lot of people showed a lot of interest in cheap and useful 'Chyson', and one company filed the trademark '차이슨'. At the time, there was controversy about the possibility of registration for '차이슨', but it was registered after a year and a half of the examination. Since then, the company has been seeking to ban the use of trademarks by companies that sell Chinese products using the name "차이슨", mostly in the open market.

intomark.com > WIPS trademark search database

‘차이슨’ (Korean language of Chyson), not valid trademark;

When the word "차이슨" became unavailable, another company that used ‘차이슨’ filed a passive confirmation of scope of patent right claiming that the Patent Tribunal doesn’t admit the validity of the trademark "차이슨". Therefore, the court did not accept the trademark right of '차이슨' unlike the trademark registration examination. The word '차이슨' was not a word referring to a specific brand, but rather a technical mark meaning a wireless cleaner made in China. The court ruled that a company can not monopolize because it has lost its discrimination in the sense that it is used by many people in the meaning of China's wireless cleaner, and that everyone can use the name "차이슨".

pixabay.com

The ‘차이슨’ (Korean language of Chyson), the name that everyone can use;

It has often been the case like ‘Chyson’ that have lost their identities by being used widespread. Traditionally, words such as ‘Hotchkiss’ (which is stapler, usually called Hotchkiss in Korea) and 'Tylenol' have been registered as trademarks, but as a result of the widespread use of many people, they have lost their identities and are no longer recognized as trademarks. The preemption of the trademark is important, but it seems to be a case showing that the use of the trademark and the management after the registration are also important.

[WIPSTUDY #2] Taiwan- Patent Litigation case study #2

Following up #1,

This time we're going to review infringement patent analysis with the case between AU Optronics Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. focusing on;

• Licensing Strategy
• Non-Self Reference
• CounterClaim
• IP Competitiveness

                                             < Search and analysis database : WIPS Global >

2-1. Infringement Patent Analysis

AU Optronics Corporation vs Samsung Electronics Co.,Ltd

wipsglobal.com> US litigation search

• Patent : US 7286192
• Title : Transflective liquid crystal display
• Case Type : Infringement
• Product : LCD television model LN46C630K1F of Samsung Electronics
• Status : Closed/ Likely settlement

wipsglobal> Citation analysis

The corresponding patent has the total 1,071 citations and among them 1,056 are forward citation references. Also, 1,012 cases are non-self citations. This means this technology is very influential so that a lot of following patents have cited. 

We can see the list of top applicants that cited the corresponding patent. Samsung Electronics is one of the top applicants in the 5th. BOE Technology is also positioned in 3rd of the list. AU Optronics might prepare licensing-out strategy to BOE. Also, BOE might analyze claims to prepare licensing-in strategy for AU Optronics.  

wipsglobal.com > Citation analysis visual mode

Backward/ forward citation relations between documents appear more clearly in visual mode with patent number by year, date, assignee...and other information together.

wipsglobal.com> Citation analysis text mode

A lot of forward references have been cited by examiner which means this patent have been evaluated very high. 

2-2. IP Power Analysis

Let's check IP competitive structure of the two parties by their counterclaim to see their IP power. 

         ∎ On LCD panel product;

     > AU Optronics vs Samsung Electronics : 10 cases

     > Samsung Electronics vs AU Optronics : 9 cases

wipsglobal.com> SmartAngle> IP Competitiveness

∎Technology and Marketability

This chart tells us the extreme difference on the IP power of the two parties.

AU Optronics has stronger technology impact as it's already proved in the citation analysis. However, they might need to prepare strategies for Non-US area considering that they don't have many family patents.

Samsung has stronger market power by overwhelming number of family documents. But they might need to prepare strategies for possibility that the invalidation turns out to be low.

wipsglobal.com> search 

◄All of the AU Optronics' patents are active.

◄3 patents of Samsung are inactive.
(1 expired, 2 terminated)

wipsglobal.com> SmartAngle> Patent Activity Index

This Patent Activity Index shows the patent activities by technology of the two parties. Based on 1.0 point as the average, we can learn that Samsung is focusing on H05 technology; electric techniques. And AU Optronics is working more on F21; lighting and G09; educating/cryptography/display/advertising/seals.

For the common technologies that the both parties have,
G02; Optics technology- Samsung shows more patent activities. On the contrary,
H01; Basic electric elements technology- AU Optronics shows more patent activities.

<Note - the Patent Activity Index is a relative comparable indicator of competitors' technology in the same field and can't be absolute index.>

                                                              Continued.....>>

Patent dispute of Starbucks Korea and The Real Marketing

Starbucks, the world 's largest coffee franchise brand, originated in the name of Starbucks, the world' s foremost mobilizer of coffee - loving characters from the American novel Moby Dick, was first established in the US in 1971. To date, it’s running approx. 23,000 stores in 64 countries. Since the opening of the first shop in front of Ewha Womans University in 1999, Korea is also enjoying great popularity, such as achieving KRW 1.5 trillion in annual sales for the first time in Korea as a coffee shop.

flickr.comⓒfrankieleon

Electronic receipt service of Starbucks Korea,
Starbucks Korea has introduced a service to issue a mobile electronic receipt instead of a paper receipt. When you pay for a drink, you can see your electronic receipt by automatically connecting the app in your mobile. Consumers were also satisfied with reducing waste and environmental pollution caused by using paper receipts.

realmktshop.kr (The Real Marketing homepage)
Says "what kind of world will come if the receipt comes into the mobile?" 

The Real Marketing, which serves commercial electronic receipt business such as TOM N TOMS, Lotte Members and LG U+, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Starbucks Korea in February. The Starbucks Korea app's electronic receipt service infringed their patent of method of an electronic receipt that they filed in 2011. Patents claiming infringement include a QR code for identifying a member to join, a QR code reading to request payment approval, and an electronic receipt for payment details. The Real Marketing insisted that Starbucks Korea apps should be banned from using electronic receipts and pay 1,000,000 won (US$900) per day. They also said they filed a lawsuit to give a warning to a conglomerate that copied the idea of ​​a small business.

wipsglobal.com/ WIPS patent search database
KR patent drawing about electronic receipt owned by The Real Marketing 

Starbucks Korea's refutation,

Starbucks Korea said that its QR code is not created during the sign-up phase but is a new payment method that is only valid for 10 minutes and is different from the QR code of the real marketing created for individual recognition. The Real Marketing insisted that Starbucks Korea just only retorted with no technical data to prove.

In the coffee industry, there is a strong argument that there is no infringement due to the difference between the two methods vs it’s clearly coying the idea. Starbucks, the world's largest coffee franchise company, and domestic start-ups, The Real Marketing, it’s becoming more interesting who will get their hands on the lawsuit.

Amazon starts shipping with airships and drones?

Recently, Amazon's interesting video was released online. It was a video of an Amazon named airship floating in the sky and a drones coming out of an airship. Netizens are finally amazed that the delivery of the drones has come true, and they have expressed interest in like the carrier of the StarCraft computer game.

Twitter.com/zozi009

 Airship ships, real? fake?

Many people were concerned that the video of the Amazon airship was genuine or fake. However, the video was confirmed to be a precisely worked with CG. On April 1, April Fool's Day, a Japanese video producer uploaded a CG video of an Amazon airship to his SNS account, and after a while he uploaded a photo of the CG producing process and confirmed it was a fake video.

Twitter.com/zozi009

Amazon's airship shipping patents,

One of the biggest reasons why netizens thought it was real while watching the airship video is probably because Amazon owns a patent on shipping methods using airships and drones. Amazon's patent literature, which was released a few years ago, shows how to ship to a destination using airships and then deliver them individually using drone. There is already an article published on the news that Amazon is studying drones delivery, and it seems that many people thought that Amazon was made the video in real by the fact that Amazon owns the patent.

www.wipsglobal.com <WIPS patent search database>
drawing of Amazon's patent document

 Amazon makes you look forward to,

Although Amazon's airship images have turned out to be April Fools' Day funk, I think it might be possible for Amazon to actually deliver those ships. Amazon is doing a lot of research related to unmanned delivery using drone, and it has succeeded in test delivery. It is expected that Amazon, which is leading the innovation through various research and development, can actually deliver the airship or introduce more innovative delivery.

[WIPSTUDY #1] Taiwan- Patent Litigation case study #1

In this study, 

we're going to find out that Taiwan lawsuit filed in US litigation reviewing real cases that Taiwan corporations and Korean corporations focusing on;

• Case Search
• Statistics
• Docket Information

                                                  < Search and analysis database : WIPS Global >

1-1. Case Search and Statistics

wipsglobal.com> US litigation search

◀US litigation 2016-2018.

Total 13,813 litigation cases in the entire US area for the latest 3 years. The result narrow it down to 13,030 cases by grouping litigation unit.  

(Left) 89% of cases closed in Federal District Court, 9% to CAFC (Court of Appeal for Federal Circuit) and only 1% to ITC (International Trade Commission) and Supreme Court respectively. (Right) 25% cases were proceeded in Texas Eastern District Court followed by Delaware and California Central Court.
More than 40% of the total are concentrated in Texas and Delaware district court. 

Looking into Taiwan cases. 

wipsglobal.com> SmartAngle

There're total 11,939 patents involved with the all 13,813 US litigation.

Among them, Asian cases are in the order of Japan, Korea, Taiwan....   and Taiwan accounts for 1% with 110 cases.

The 1st applicants of the Taiwan cases filed in the US litigation during the same period are as below. 

wipsglobal> SmartAngle (2016-2018)

Then, what about the entire period? There're 90,564 litigation in the United States with 46,745 patents involved. Taiwan accounts for 1% with 509 cases out of total which is the same ratio above. 

Following chart is the 1st applicants from the top with the number of cases.  

wipsglobal> SmartAngle (no period)

By the top 10 applicants, it tells that most patent litigation is concentrated in the fields of electricity, electronics, semiconductor and computer.

We're going to review an real case on liquid crystal display between AU Optronics Corp.( ranked in 4th above) and Korean corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

1-2. Case Study

AU Optronics Corp. v Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd

wipsglobal.com> US litigation search

• Case type : infringement
• Court : Delaware district court
• Product : Samsung's 46'' LCD TV model LN46C630K1F
• Plaintiff : AU Optronics Corp.
• Defendant : Samsung Electronics Co.,Ltd et al. 4
• Patent : US 7286192

This is the infringement case filed on Jun. 27th, 2011 and closed on Jan. 27th, 2012 at the Delaware district court. It's about patent infringement AU Optronics applied for in 2007. As the owner of a patent right, they accused the 4 companies including Samsung Electronics. Case flow diagram shows it's closed at the Federal District step. 


1-3. Docket Review

This case is settled by patent cross license agreement. We can check the result of the case through the docket information. 

wipsglobal.com> US litigation search> view detail

view detail> docket information

◀ Patent cross license agreement

the docket says;
AU Optronics Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. buried the hatchet Friday in several lawsuits against each other over liquid crystal court and the U.S. International Trade Commission.











   





                                                                         
                                                                             

                                                                                                Continued.....>>

Inter Milan filed a suit against David Beckham

Italian football club ‘Inter Milan’ has filed suit against British soccer star David Beckham. The reason for the suit is that the Beckham's new soccer club’s title infringes on the Inter Milan’s trademark rights. It seems to be an worldwide issue because it is a lawsuit between prominent club of Italian Serie A and famous soccer star.

Inter Milan and David Beckham

Inter Milan is an independent football club from the Italian football club AC Milan, official name is the Internazionale Milano Football Club. It is called 'Inter' which means 'international' by accepting not only domestic players but also foreign players. Meanwhile, David Beckham has retired from active duty, and he has set up a football club in Miami since 2014. He was allowed to join the club in January of last year with the name 'Inter Miami' and will be participating in the American Football League from 2020.

'Inter' is the exclusive name of Inter Milan?

The problem is that the 'Inter' part of 'Inter Miami' names overlap with Inter Milan. The Inter Milan insisted that only Inter Milan can use the name "Inter". It also claimed that Inter Miami is a trademark infringement of Inter Milan if it used the name "Inter" because it registered its name as a trademark, and asked the judge to make the name "Inter Miami" unavailable as the trademark.

intomark.com (WIPS's trademark search database) 

Trademark of Inter Milan

Inter Milan and Inter Miami

At first glance, it seems that the name 'Inter' does not have a distinctive identity as a trademark because it is the first part of International (Internazionale in Italian) which means 'international'. However, the name of Inter Milan is registered as a trademark, so it is difficult to judge easily. We should wait and see how the results of the two famous football teams of ‘Inter’ are going to come out.