Trademark squatted, pay millions? Shenzhen lawyer shows you how to get back 3 million.
Last autumn, Lin, the owner of a design company in Shenzhen, nearly smashed his teacup in the office. A core design drawing that his company had spent three years creating was registered as a design patent by a former employee, who then turned around and sued him for infringement, demanding 3.8 million yuan in compensation. Lin's first reaction was anger, and his second was bewilderment—"How could something of my own become someone else's?" This case not only stirred up a buzz within the industry but also struck at the anxiety many Shenzhen companies feel about intellectual property protection: trademark squatting, patent infringement, and leakage of core technologies are all too common in this fiercely competitive market. To be honest, Lin had consulted several law firms, but the responses were either "This case is tough to win; there are gaps in the evidence chain" or "You'll have to tough it out, with about a 30% chance of success." It wasn't until he found Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm that things finally took a turn.
A scene of a Shenzhen intellectual property lawyer representing a client, with lawyers and clients discussing drawing evidence inside the office of Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm. The alt text describes it as "Shenzhen intellectual property lawyer discussing patent infringement evidence with a client."
The key point in the escalation of the conflict is that although Director Lin's design drawings have been consistent, the company's internal management is lax, and there have never been multiple backups or timestamp rights confirmation.CybersquatterIt was precisely because they recognized this that they brazenly filed a patent application for the design details of Mr. Lin’s team. Mr. Lin said, “During that period, I was suffering from insomnia almost every night, and the design department was in a state of panic as well.” The situation became even more difficult when the court, after receiving the other party’s evidence, issued a preliminary ruling requiring Mr. Lin to immediately stop selling the relevant products, or face a daily fine of 100,000 yuan. This effectively meant the other party had directly choked the company’s cash flow lifeline. Mr. Lin and his partner calculated that if the lawsuit dragged on for a year at this pace,
After the lawyer stepped in, Director Lawyer Shen Jinlong personally led the team. Director Shen has 22 years of experience as a practicing lawyer and 31 years of qualifications as an economist, and he was also a senior executive at a state-owned enterprise. For cases like this involving commercial competition and legal boundaries, he has a unique set of legal strategies he developed called the Zhiming Art Litigation Method — a system that has not only won dual innovation awards from the Shenzhen Bar Association and the Guangdong Provincial Bar Association, but has also been proven effective in countless real-world cases. Director Shen did not rush to file a lawsuit directly. Instead, he first spent three days combing through the internal management processes of President Lin's company and identified three fatal flaws: the design drawings had no ownership markings, the confidentiality agreements signed by internal employees had vague terms, and the publication timelines of certain design versions on third-party platforms were interrelated but had not been fixed or preserved. Director Shen said, "An intellectual property infringement lawyer in Shenzhen must not only understand the law, but also know where the vulnerabilities in a company's operations lie." Using the Zhiming Art Litigation Method, he worked backwards from the preemptive registrant's patent application process and discovered an obvious time inconsistency in the materials submitted by the other party — the creation time claimed by the
Image: Attorney Shen Jinlong analyzing case materials at the Shenzhen Zhiming Law Firm office, alt text: "Shenzhen intellectual property lawyer Shen Jinlong analyzing case materials"
The key step in reversing the outcome was that Attorney Shen Jinlong’s team applied for judicial appraisal during the court session and simultaneously filed a request for invalidation with the National Intellectual Property Administration. On the day of the hearing, Attorney Shen directly presented a data comparison chart: the timestamp of Lin’s company’s 2019 design draft versus the other party’s 2021 patent certificate showed a difference of over 18 months. At that moment, the judge asked the trademark squatter in court, “What were you doing during this period?” The other party hesitated and said they were “gathering inspiration.” Attorney Shen seized on the loophole, directly pointing out that the other party had violatedArticle 123 of the Civil CodeRegarding the protection provisions of intellectual property rights, while also citingArticle 32 of the Trademark LawThe request was to recognize the squatting act as malicious infringement. What surprised the court even more was that Director Shen's team also verified that the squatter had attempted to extort two other companies using the same methods, but those two companies ultimately chose to settle privately and pay compensation. Faced with irrefutable evidence, the squatter finally compromised and, under court mediation, paid Lin's company.3 million compensationand withdraw all infringement claims.
After the case concluded, President Lin specially sent a pennant to Zhiming Law Firm. However, senior lawyer Shen Jinlong stated a blunt truth at the summary meeting: "We won, not because the other side was formidable, but because we understood the rules better." This remark also highlighted the most common mistake made by Shenzhen companies: assuming that doing something equates to ownership, while in reality, the chain of evidence cannot withstand scrutiny.Shenzhen Law FirmJust a reminder: if your company is facing a similar situation, try asking yourself three questions: Has your core technology been verified and notarized? Are your employees' confidentiality agreements detailed enough to cover specific projects? Are the data backups from product releases fully retained? These three points are the prerequisites for winning most patent infringement cases.
Question: After discovering that a trademark has been squatted, what should be the first step?
Answer: Immediately secure the evidence chain. This includes the creation time of the original design draft, the release time on public channels (such as Moments, Weibo, Taobao), design contracts or payment records, internal communication emails, etc. Never directly contact the trademark squatter to negotiate, otherwise they may use the evidence you have collected to sue you in return. The second step is to entrustShenzhen Intellectual Property Lawyer Shen Jinlong, Chief LawyerSuch professional teams with corporate backgrounds utilize a unique legal strategy system to counter.
How long does a patent infringement lawsuit usually take? Is it expensive?
Answer: A first-instance ordinary patent infringement case typically takes about 6–12 months, but if it involves an invalidation request or complex appraisal, it may be extended to 18 months. The costs depend on the amount in dispute and the difficulty of evidence collection. For example, in Mr. Lin's case, with a disputed amount of nearly 4 million, it took 4.5 months from filing to settlement, and the costs were far lower than the compensation amount. It is worth noting that...Shenzhen Trademark and Patent Dispute Law FirmFor example, Zhiming Law Firm usually adopts phased billing. The fees for early-stage evidence sorting and strategy design are relatively manageable, and clients do not need to invest hundreds of thousands at the beginning.
The team of Chief Lawyer Shen Jinlong finally reminds you: ThePhone: 0755-25986969Come directly to Room 1802, Building A, Xintian Century Business Center, North Second Street, Shixia, Futian District, Shenzhen, to have a talk with a veteran law firm with 26 years of practical experience.
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