UTec shares IP views and produces anti-counterfeiting trademark

Oct 28, 2013

Arnald Ho addresses delegates at UTec's IP seminar

Arnald Ho addresses delegates at UTec’s IP seminar

The company held a seminar earlier this month on its work on IP, and released a new ant-counterfeiting trademark for its Neutral Box range of cartridges.

The global distributor of Print-Rite imaging products held a seminar entitled Only the IP Believers Survive” in Asia on 18 October, alongside a number of guest speakers including Actionable Intelligence’s Charlie Brewer and two legal representatives from US and UK-based law firms – Steven Adkins of Allen & Overy LLP and Simon Raynor of Urquhart-Dykes & Lord LLP.

UTec commented that it “has a mission to promote higher awareness of and respect for intellectual property in the industry”, and Managing Director Arnald Ho stated that “patent[s] [are] a strategic tool to sustain growth in the aftermarket industry”, with over 2,100 patents registered as of this month. Brewer meanwhile noted that “IP lawsuits are changing the playing field”, whilst Adkins, a specialist in USITC 337 investigations, noted “the only way to minimise risk is to sell only non-infringing products and buy from IP-aware manufacturers”.

Raynor added that “it is difficult for a reseller to tell whether a product is infringing or not, and it would be impractical to hire your own lawyer to review each and every product that you purchase”. He went on to recommend that “you should always buy from IP-aware manufacturers as a way to minimise patent infringement risk”.

In turn, UTec also announced that it has developed a new trademark for its Neutral Box laser cartridge range. The trademark, entitled “NEU”, has been developed in an effort to “provide higher protection against counterfeit products”, after many “cop[ied] and fake Neutral Box cartridges [have been found] in the market”, with many more in recent months “in a number of countries”.

The trademark, UTec added, “allows easy identification of the genuine Neutral Box laser cartridges […] and at the same time provides better protection against counterfeit products”, with the counterfeit cartridges sold in boxes “that look the same or very similar” to the Neutral Box packaging, but “are of inferior quality [and] are causing confusion and problems”.

Iris Ngo, General Manager of UTec, stated: “Our Neutral Box laser cartridges are very popular in many countries and counterfeit products have caused a lot of confusion and problems to our customers.

“UTec is committed to protecting the interest of our customers; therefore, we invested in this new trademark as an effort to combat those counterfeit products. We will take aggressive legal actions against products and parties that infringe this trademark.”

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