Interview: Meeting the burden of proof

May 14, 2013 | BY

clpstaff &clp articles

Weichai Power, an automobile company in east China's Shandong province, hit the headlines this year when it signed a strategic alliance with Ferrari. David Tring spoke with Jeffery Chen, Weichai's general legal counsel, on R&D, what he looks for from outside counsel and the alliance

What is the general structure of Weichai Power's legal department?

Weichai's legal team consists of approximately 40 lawyers who are qualified in areas where the company maintains significant operations. Weichai's legal team at the group-level takes care of most of the legal work within the group, and it also oversees the work of legal teams at subsidiary levels. While generally lawyers focus on legal work in their specialised areas, like corporate, IP and litigation, they do work closely with each other on major projects and transactions.

What have been some of the major legal challenges you have faced when it comes to R&D in China?

As with other technology-intense businesses in China, we also face critical IP infringement issues. For example, the last few years have seen Weichai gradually increase its collaboration with third-party engineering consultants from home and abroad in R&D activities. Coupled with such a trend, we have seen in several cases jointly-developed technologies leaked to competitors, despite having taken confidentiality steps. When this happens, it is often very difficult for the infringed party to discharge its burden of proof. Further, the lack of experience in patent infringement cases on the part of Chinese courts in many regions and the lack of discovery procedures for establishing the sales volume of infringing products have also caused difficulties when it comes to protecting our IP.

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