On February 20, 2008, Gertrude Neumark Rothschild, a retired professor at Columbia University, filed an application with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing the global 30 companies of producing and selling light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser products in the United States. The patent required the ITC to initiate the “337 investigation†on the respondent and apply for a general exclusion order and a prohibition order. Four companies in Guangdong and Shenzhen were involved in the case. On March 20, 2008, the US ITC officially filed the case. In order to timely inform the member units of the "337 investigation" case situation, find out the response situation of the LED-related enterprises, and discuss the measures to collectively respond to the "337 investigation", the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance was held in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province on March 18th. Seminar on "337 Survey". More than 60 representatives from more than 40 units including alliance member units, China Optoelectronics Optoelectronic Devices Branch, Display Branch, China Electromechanical Chamber of Commerce, patent attorneys, and enterprises involved in the conference attended the meeting. Ms. Wu Ling, Secretary General of the Alliance, presided over the meeting.
Secretary-General Wu Ling first introduced the "337 investigation" process. Secretary-General Wu Ling stressed that because of the trade-exclusive characteristics of the "337 investigation" case itself, if the case is not actively responded, the consequences will be very serious. In addition to the loss of China's LED manufacturing companies in the US market, it may also affect the export of products to Europe, South America, etc., will lose tens of billions of dollars of international LED products, often the emerging semiconductor lighting industry in China will suffer Kill.
At the seminar, the patent attorneys who participated in the “337 investigation†lawsuit pointed out that the “337 investigation†is basically the same as the ordinary lawsuit in the application of substantive law, but there is no jury system and the relief measures are different. The “337 investigation†excludes the attack. Big. Different from anti-dumping, the “337 investigation†has a clear deadline for litigation, and the trial time is fast, generally concluded in 12-18 months. If there is a third party involved in the litigation process, participating in the company's responding activities will become the object of investigation. Moreover, in the “337 investigation†case, the well-known international five people were not listed as litigation objects (Toyota Synthetic, Osram, Lumileds and Rothschild have reconciled, Cree is in the US District Court), and mainly in the middle and lower reaches The relevance of the interests behind it needs to be further understood. The patent attorney believes that the dispute in this case is not simply a problem of technology itself, but more of a legal issue in patents. The main problems to be solved are: whether the patent can claim protection according to one of the patent protection requirements and enlargement; how the court Obtain evidence and make judgments; whether the judgments of multiple companies of the defendant will be the same, whether they are different due to the enthusiasm of responding to the complaint.
Researcher of the Alliance Patent Pool Working Group and Researcher Wang Guohong of the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences explained the technical aspects of the “337 investigation†concerning the patent itself, pointing out that the patent is a process for fabricating PN junction semiconductor devices by P-type and N-type doping. And methods. From a technical point of view, this patent application only targets II-VI semiconductors, not III-V semiconductor materials such as GaN. This is clearly stated throughout the patent, but the US application for prosecution deliberately avoided This claim is claimed, and claims for protection are attached to other claims attached to the claim. Patent claims require protection of short-wavelength GaN-based LEDs, LD blue-violet and UV-band related products and applications. That is, all of the GaN P-type doping is affected, while the red, orange, yellow LEDs and LD (laser diode) are not protected because they do not use GaN materials. Therefore, for the purposes of its patent application, the claims of this patent focus on the II-VI compound semiconductor material system, and currently semiconductor lighting products are mainly concentrated in III-V semiconductor material systems, such as nitrides, especially disputes. The short-wavelength LEDs and LDs mentioned in the paper are concentrated in GaN system materials. From the purpose of the application, its patents cannot pose a substantial threat to the current manufacturers of compound semiconductor lighting materials.
Participants expressed their attitude to actively attach importance to this incident. LED-related enterprises must participate in joint response, and expressed that they will contribute money to jointly solve huge litigation costs, and actively recommend that the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance take the lead in organizing Fundraising, this is also an opportunity to show the solidarity and cooperation of the members of the alliance, and to win the support of the relevant parties, we must win this lawsuit. Some experts pointed out that more and more companies in the United States are using the "337 investigation", a unique law to frequently set obstacles to Chinese goods. The real purpose is not to protect intellectual property rights, but to protect their market share. The main practice is to first file an investigation application for China's highly competitive export products or smaller enterprises, and then use the exclusion order to restrict all enterprises in related industries in China from exporting to the United States. Therefore, the incident is not only related to the four companies involved, but also a major event in our entire industry. In addition, representatives from the ASTRI in Hong Kong said that they could not look at the case from a technical point of view. Although the case involved individual companies, they must face it positively and suggest that they can contact Taiwanese companies to solve the problem together. In the long run, it is necessary to strengthen patent analysis and establish a patent pool to achieve reasonable distribution of patents and joint response.
Li Baoshan, a researcher in the new material field of the 863 Program, pointed out that it is not the first time or the last time that the "337 investigation" case itself should be fully recognized and valued. Although the alliance is not a legal subject, it must be actively promoted. Actively cooperate with the Ministry of Commerce, fully organize and support; the government will actively pay attention to further understanding of the situation; in addition, is planning the next batch of 863 project guides, to increase funding for standards and patents, strengthen research in the short term, for the next step Be prepared to actively promote the development of the industry, everyone must work together to win the greatest benefits at the least cost.
? The United States launched 337 investigation of China's four LED companies involved in the case 2008-03-25
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