Commerce Department says will guide the ZTE associate sued United States 337 investigation-ZTE, Lenovo, investigation-IT information

On May 7, United States International Trade Commission, announced that they had decided on 8 337 investigation of electronics companies, 8 companies including Sony, Samsung, LG, Motorola, BlackBerry, as well as from China's Lenovo, ZTE, HTC.

United States International Trade Commission said in a statement, products are being investigated, including smart phones, can play user-portable electronic device for storing media files , Singapore innovation company and its United States Branch March 24 complaints, accused many in the United States market sales of portable electronic devices products infringing their patents, issued a prohibition order.

Has a number of Chinese companies to provide overseas services Hao Junbo said lawyers, United States International Trade Commission decided to launch a section 337 investigation, their preliminary accreditation Singapore innovation company complaints:

Hao Junbo: 337 now is mainly devoted to a survey of goods infringe their intellectual property rights, that from this time to see what should be in March, they went to the United States this authority reflects this problem, there must be some in the early exchanges, such as requirements to reflect the problems of the Singapore United States company supplementary information, or submitting some evidence or something. For now, the United States should be considered more likely, so the investigation.

It is understood that "section 337 investigation" takes its name from the 1930 United States Article No. 337 of the tariff Act. Under this clause, United States International Trade Commission empowered to investigate complaints of patent and trademark infringement, involving misappropriation of trade secrets, product packaging available for infringement, counterfeiting and false advertising and other content of the survey.

Statistics show that, from 2007 to 2015, in March, the United States initiated 337 investigation of 362, including China-related cases as many as 152, 42% per cent. Xinhua News Agency also said in a report at the end of 2015,"China has 13 consecutive years as section 337 investigation than any other country".

Xing Houyuan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Commerce analysis, this means that the United States for Chinese companies growth, development and competitiveness more attention:

Xing Houyuan: first of all, it reflects the US side for Sino-US trade, is the US trade in goods, including technology about China's rapid rise in the trade trade, intellectual property rights, in particular between American and Chinese trade surpluses held by China, that part of the concern. After all, China is now the world's first trading power, the downward trend in global trade following China's market share of international trade has significantly improved. So at this point, United States consider China's competitiveness and stronger, United States increased penalties for section 337 investigation of China's enterprises are mainly United States parties ' special attention, on China's growth, development, and gave special attention to the enhancement of their competitiveness.

Insiders, who asked not to be named said that their company had repeatedly called the lawsuit, win 3, 4 times:

Industry: is the overseas enterprises, and many were so-called 337 investigation. We won was probably a 3 or 4 times. This year, and every year there are many, not only for Chinese companies, many of the overseas companies, is a non-United States enterprises, United States primarily in order to protect its market share, it's a competition and a barrier to trade.

However, not all companies have an interest in such a case, Hao Shibo said, the high cost of lawsuits, many people prefer to "free ride":

Hao Junbo: because you have to find United States local intellectual property lawyers, some costs will be higher, if such an action had won, and his return should be higher. Hitchhiking, a situation may be similar, if winning is not only your own income, other people could hitch, so in this case is not very active, not very willing to come spend the money on this lawsuit.

Analysts pointed out that domestic enterprises has to expand to overseas markets in recent years, in capital, technology, personnel, products, also set up shop in the world. Meanwhile, various Chinese enterprises also frequently appeared, many of them foreign-related intellectual property rights disputes.

Previously, domestic enterprises with the 70 's of last century's Japan similar practices for your business, similar to the 337 investigation aside, many of the company's products out of the United States market . Domestic enterprises have in recent years begun responding, but it is very difficult. It is understood that Chinese companies lost rate is far higher than the world average of foreign-related intellectual property disputes.

Some experts pointed out that many domestic enterprises have not adapted to the new rules of the game, the new rules of the game, is by the very perfection of legal system of United States dominated their idea is in the knowledge economy "to extract oil." Commerce Department said Xing Houyuan, Deputy Director of the Institute, the Ministry of Commerce will help Chinese enterprises to actively respond to international litigation similar to the section 337 investigation:

Xing Houyuan: I'm very concerned about the progress of cases and trends, I think there is definitely a violation of World Trade Organization free trade principles, and also runs counter to the United States foreign claims to advocate trade liberalization and facilitation principle. Based on such a judgment, the cases of Chinese companies, in particular, we consider to be strategic industry leading enterprises of great harm to the said measures should be taken. Personally think that the Commerce Department will guide these enterprises take active measures to respond.

商务部称将指导中兴联想应诉美国337调查 - 中兴,联想,调查 - IT资讯

5月7日消息，美国国际贸易委员会宣布，他们已经决定对8家电子产品公司展开337调查，这8家公司包括索尼、三星、LG、摩托罗拉、黑莓，以及来自中国的联想、中兴、HTC。

美国国际贸易委员会发表声明说，被调查的产品是包括智能手机在内的、可播放用户存储媒体文件的便携式电子设备，新加坡创新有限公司及其美国分公司今年3月24日提出申诉，指控许多在美国市场销售的便携式电子设备产品侵犯了他们的专利，请求发布禁止令。

曾为多家中国公司提供海外服务的郝俊波律师表示，美国国际贸易委员会决定展开337调查，说明他们初步认可了新加坡创新有限公司的投诉内容：

郝俊波：现在337主要就是针对侵犯他们知识产权的商品的一个调查，那从这个时间来看的话呢，应该是3月份他们就向美国的这个机关反映了这个问题，前期肯定有些交流，比如说要求去反映问题的这个新加坡的美国公司补充资料啊，或者提交一些证据啊什么的。从现在来看呢，这个美国应该是初步认为可能性比较大，所以展开调查了。

据了解，“337调查”得名于《1930年美国关税法》第337条款。根据这个条款，美国国际贸易委员会有权调查有关专利和注册商标侵权的控告，也可开展涉及盗用商业机密、商品包装侵权、仿制和虚假广告等内容的调查。

有统计显示，从2007年到2015年3月，美国共发起337调查362起，其中，涉华案件多达152起，占比42.0%。新华社更是在2015年底的报道中称，“中国已经连续13年成为337调查最多的国家”。

商务部研究院副院长邢厚媛分析认为，这意味着美方对于中国企业成长、发展和竞争力提升更加关注：

邢厚媛：首先它反映了美方对于中美贸易，就是我们讲的货物贸易，包括技术贸易、知识产权贸易方面对中国的迅速崛起，特别是中美贸易之间中方持有的顺差的那一部分的高度关注。毕竟中国现在是世界第一贸易大国，在全球贸易下行的趋势下中国的国际贸易市场份额还有显著提升。所以在这一点上，美国考虑中国的竞争力越来越强，美国加重了对中国企业的337调查主要还是美国方的一些特殊关注吧，对中国企业的成长、发展以及他们竞争力的增强给予了特殊的关照。

一位不愿透露姓名的业内人士说，他们公司已经多次打过这种官司，胜诉都有3、4次了：

业内人士：就是这些走向海外的企业吧，很多都有被所谓的337调查。我们胜诉了可能有个3、4次。这个调查年都有，而且每年都有很多，不光对中国企业，对很多海外的企业，就是非美国的企业也都有，美国主要为了保证自己的市场份额嘛，这事一个竞争手段和一个贸易壁垒嘛。

不过，并非所有的公司都有兴趣打这种官司，郝是波律师说，这种官司的成本很高，很多人更愿意“搭便车”：

郝俊波：因为你必须得找美国当地的知识产权律师了，费用肯定会更高一些，如果是这种诉讼赢了，他的回报应该也是更高。有搭便车的情况，可能是同类的一种情况，如果是赢了不仅是你自己收益，其他人也能搭便车，所以说在这种情况下有的不是很积极，不是很愿意出头来花这个钱打这个官司。

有分析指出，国内的企业近年来不断向海外市场拓展，在输出资本、技术、人才、产品时，也在世界各地开设工厂。同时，各种针对中国企业的调查也时常出现，其中多为涉外知识产权纠纷。

此前，国内企业选择了与上世纪70年代的日本企业相似的做法，对于类似于337这样的调查置之不理，结果很多公司的产品退出了美国市场。近年来国内企业也纷纷开始应诉，但难度很大。据了解，中国企业涉外知识产权纠纷败诉率远高于世界平均值。

还有专家指出，很多国内企业还没有适应新的游戏规则，这个新的游戏规则，是由法律体系非常完善的美国所主导，他们的想法是从知识经济中“榨取油水”。商务部研究院副院长邢厚媛表示，商务部一定会帮助中国企业积极应对类似337调查这样的国际诉讼：

邢厚媛：本身我很关注案件的进展和走向，我本人觉得肯定是有违背世界贸易组织关于自由贸易的原则，也违背了美国一向对外所宣称的倡导贸易自由化和便利化的原则。基于这样的一个判断，这次的案件呢对中国企业，特别是我们认为属于大的战略性产业的龙头企业采取的措施应该说是危害极大的。个人认为商务部一定会指导这些企业采取积极的措施进行应对的。