I. General provisions

1.These procedures are prepared in accordance with the Method of Intellectual Property Rights Protection for Exhibition in order to enhance intellectual property rights protection, to protect the lawful interest of various parties concerned and to maintain the normal order of exhibition.

2.The Owners of ITMA ASIA + CITME 2022(“exhibition”) respect and protect the lawful interest of intellectual property rights owners during the exhibition. Exhibitors shall ensure that their exhibits do not constitute an infringement of other parties' intellectual property rights.

II. Complaint handling organization

3. An on-site intellectual property rights office (“IPR Office”) will be set up for the exhibition from 19/11/2023 to 23/11/2023 during 0900 hrs to 1700 hrs, which will consist of the Owners, external IPR administrative authority and IPR practitioners.

4.The IPR Office shall handle alleged patent infringements happening within the exhibition venue during the exhibition in a fair and impartial manner.

III. Conditions for accepting IPR complaints

5.The complainant must be a patent holder or an interested party such as the licensee to a patent license contract and the lawful successor of patent right. In the case of a sole license contract, the licensee may file complaints independently, and in the case of an exclusive license contract, the licensee may file complaints independently upon approval by the patent holder. In the case of a simple license contract, the licensee may not file complaints independently unless otherwise agreed in the contract.

6.The complainant who discovered a potential serious patent infringement in the exhibits, promotional items exhibited and display organized in the exhibition venue shall file a written complaint to the IPR Office.

7. For any serious alleged patent infringement which has been dealt with in previous exhibitions and recurs in this exhibition, the complainant shall also produce valid documents concerning the settlement of such infringement dispute obtained after the closing of previous exhibitions, such as a court verdict, an administrative decision, a mediation agreement and reconciliation agreement, otherwise, the IPR Office may refuse to accept any repeated complaint.

8. The IPR Office may reject any patent infringement complaint or claim in any of the following situations:

• (1) The complainant or claimant has already instituted a patent infringement suit with the people’s court of competent jurisdiction
• (2) A request for invalidation of the patent involved is currently being processed
• (3) A dispute exists on the patent involved, and a hearing by the people’s court or a mediation process of the patent administration authority is currently pending
• (4) The patent involved has expired and the patent holder is currently applying for restoration of patent rights

9.The complainant shall agree to bear any expenses incurred by the complaint filed by it with the IPR Office under this procedure and request made to the IPR Office for actions to be taken against the allegedly infringing party. Additionally, the complainant shall compensate for economic loss, if any, caused to various parties concerned due to its unjustified complaint.

IV. Complaint handling procedure

10.The complainant shall fill out a Complaint Form for IPR Infringement Dispute indicating the facts and reasons of complaint, and provide the following documents in duplicate:

• ① A valid document proving the identity of the complainant. In case an agent is appointed for filing an IPR complaint, the complainant shall also provide a power of attorney made for that purpose.
  In case the complainant is an interested party, it shall provide a proof indicating its identity as the lawful successor of patent right or a copy of relevant patent license contract.
  If the complainant is a foreigner, foreign company or other foreign organization, a notary public must authenticate the documents (herein refer as Company Register Certificate if the complainant is a Company, or personal valid identification document if the complainant is a Person) provided by the complainant. In case an agent is appointed, a notary public shall also authenticate the power of attorney made for that purpose. In case the complainant is a person from Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, or Taiwan Province，the documents provided by the complainant shall be notarized, and if an agent is appointed to act for the complainant, the relevant power of attorney shall also be notarized.
• ②The patent publication document embodying the patent right claimed by the complainant.
• ③The patent certificate and the duplicate of patent register embodying the patent right claimed by the complainant, or the receipt issued by the State Intellectual Property Office indicating the payment of annual patent fee by the complainant in the most recent year.

11.Upon examination of the above-mentioned documents, the IPR Office shall forward one of the two copies to the party complained against, who shall be required to provide a written reply to the IPR Office within one day from receipt of said documents.

12.The party complained against may, after being informed of the alleged infringement, produce valid evidence proving non-infringement. In case the party complained against fails to, within the specified period of reply, produce valid evidence proving non-infringement of its exhibits which are suspected of serious infringement, and the IPR Office decides that a serious patent infringement has occurred, the IPR Office shall have the right to suspend the exhibition of the infringing exhibits.

13.The party complained against may resume exhibition upon the production of valid evidence showing non-infringement to the IPR Office during the exhibition period.

14.In case the exhibits complained of have been found constituting an infringement through a decision rendered by the people’s court of competent jurisdiction or the competent patent administration authority, which has become effective, the IPR Office shall have the right to stop the exhibition of such exhibits.

15. In order to maintain the normal order of exhibition, during the period from when the IPR Office made a decision and the party complained against accepted such decision until the end of the exhibition, the complainant shall not take further legal action against the party complained against in the exhibition venue.

V. Penalty provisions

16.For any alleged patent infringement discovered in the exhibition venue, the complainant shall file a complaint with the IPR Office. The IPR Office shall have right to prohibit the entry or order the leaving of an exhibitor or non-exhibitor party who approached the party complained against directly without the intervention of the IPR Office, and consequently caused a dispute in the exhibition venue and an interference with the exhibition order.

17.The Owners of the exhibition may revoke the permit issued to an exhibitor who is suspected of serious infringement and refused to cooperate with the IPR Office, and may cancel the exhibitor’s qualification for participating in the next exhibition.

18.An exhibitor who is suspected of patent infringement shall be solely responsible for the economic losses arising from the prohibition of exhibition or other actions taken by the competent patent administration authority.

VI. Miscellaneous

19.Any dispute involving alleged copyright and trademark right infringement shall be settled according to the foregoing articles 4 ~ 18.