The 21st century is the era of knowledge economy, independent innovation has become an important magic weapon for enterprises to occupy a favorable position in the market competition. Intellectual property rights, as the natural crystallization or legal transformation of innovative achievements, play a crucial role in the development of enterprises. Intellectual property rights, also known as "intellectual property rights", are the rights that the right holder enjoys according to law to the achievements created by his intellectual activities and the marks and reputation in his business activities. Although countries have not reached a consensus on the types of intellectual property rights, there is no dispute about trademark rights, patents, Copyrights and trade secrets as basic types of intellectual property rights. This paper mainly combs the legal risks existing in the process of intellectual property management of enterprises:

1. Failure to apply for trademarks or patents in a timely manner

According to the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, China's trademark protection adopts the principle of registration, unregistered trademarks do not have exclusive rights, can not be used by others trademark rights protection, and when others pre-registered, may also face the risk that the enterprise will not be able to continue to use the trademark or logo or cannot expand the use of the trademark or logo. Therefore, when an enterprise registers an enterprise name or carries out brand promotion, it should pay attention to the trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to check whether the corresponding size and brand have been registered, and apply for registration immediately once it can be registered. If there is a prior registered trademark, it should be another size, brand, to avoid conflicts of rights. If there is export business, it is also necessary to carry out international registration of trademarks.

Only authorized technical solutions submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office can be protected by the Patent Law. If the enterprise's technological innovation does not apply for patents or does not apply for patents in a timely manner, it is not only easy to lose the opportunity to obtain patents due to the lack of novelty of technological innovation, but also easy to make competitors obtain enough technical tips to improve technology and compete with their own technology in the market, or make competitors further improve the application technology to apply for patents and occupy the market. In turn, it restricts the enterprise itself, and even though the enterprise has the dominant technology, it is difficult to help itself gain the corresponding market share.

2. Failure to pay or renew on time results in loss of intellectual property rights

If the patent right or trademark right is not renewed after the expiration, it means that the enterprise loses the corresponding patent right or trademark right, which will cause a series of legal risks to the enterprise. For example, the enterprise loses the patent right because of the core technology, and others copy its technology but cannot pursue its legal responsibility; For example, after the enterprise loses the trademark right, others may take the opportunity to register the enterprise trademark, which makes it difficult for the enterprise to re-apply for registration of the trademark. The loss of patent rights or trademark rights is equivalent to the loss of intangible assets, and may also affect the enterprise's entry into the capital market (IPO, etc.). Therefore, enterprises should establish an effective internal control system for the management of relevant patents and trademarks. After obtaining patent rights and trademark rights, regular monitoring work should be done to avoid the loss of rights due to forgetting to pay the annual fee or failing to renew it in time.

3. Disclosure of trade secrets or loss of intellectual property

The leakage of trade secrets or loss of intellectual property rights mainly occurs in the process of internal management and external communication activities of enterprises. For example: In the process of production or research and development, enterprises lack protection of information such as technical information, data, test data, design schemes, technical procedures, electronic documents, development plans and progress, especially the lack of effective monitoring of technical data and achievements mastered by core technical employees, resulting in the unauthorized publication of technical developers or turnover of enterprise employees. Cause disclosure of trade secrets or loss of intellectual property rights; In the process of applying for a patent right, the enterprise shall disclose all its technical secrets or core technical achievements through the statutory publication procedure, which may be imitated or exploited by others after retrieving key information through the patent application; In the process of business cooperation, enterprises only pay attention to the business cooperation itself due to the lack of confidentiality awareness and imperfect confidentiality system, which leads to others being informed of the business secrets of enterprises.

4. An enterprise infringes the intellectual property rights of other right holders in the course of production and operation

In the course of production and operation, an enterprise may infringe upon the trademark rights, Copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights of other right holders due to its lack of awareness of intellectual property protection. If an enterprise, in order to achieve better sales results for its products or services, uses the same or similar trademark with others in the same or similar products or services, resulting in the legal risk of infringement of the trademark rights of other right holders; Or in the process of advertising for their own company on Internet pages, wechat public accounts and other we-media platforms, use the copyrighted text (font), pictures, videos, etc., which may cause legal risks of infringement of the copyright of other rights holders; Or in the process of product development and production, the patent search is insufficient, resulting in the new products or new technologies developed by the enterprise falling within the scope of protection of others' prior patent rights, resulting in the legal risk of infringement of other right holders' patent rights.

5. Legal risks arise from unclear agreement on the ownership of intellectual property rights

With the improvement of intellectual property awareness and the strengthening of cooperation between enterprises, more and more enterprises begin to develop new products through cooperative development to participate in market competition. In the process of cooperative research and development and promotion, the most prone to disputes is the ownership of rights of cooperative research and development results. In addition to technical cooperation and development, in the process of joint ventures, cooperation and mergers and acquisitions, it is also easy to cause legal risks due to unclear agreement on intellectual property rights. Based on the special attributes of intellectual property as intangible assets and the legal risks arising from joint intellectual property, it is suggested that enterprises should make clear the ownership of intellectual property as much as possible, and choose flexible and diverse licensing methods to replace the joint mode with relatively high legal risks. It is also necessary to reduce the risks that may arise in the exercise of rights in the future with a clear and specific division of powers and responsibilities.

【 Case Study 】

The American company GettyImages is the copyright owner of the pictures involved in the case, and the plaintiff is authorized to enjoy the property rights in the copyright of the pictures involved in China. The defendant, Xi 'an True Love Company Beijing Branch, without the plaintiff's permission, used a picture of the case on its registered Weibo certified public account "True Love Beijing Chinese Restaurant".

The Court heard that the documents submitted by the plaintiffs and the "Confirmation of Authorization" show that GettyImages, Inc. in the United States, copyrighted all images displayed on its corporate website www.gettyimages.ca. After logging in to the website in court, the website showed two pictures involved in the case, and the two pictures showed the watermark of "gettyimages", which should be regarded as the signature of the American GettyImages company on its photographic works, according to which the American GettyImages company is the copyright owner of the pictures involved. According to the content of the Authorization Confirmation, since August 13, 2016, GettyImages has appointed plaintiff as its sole authorized representative in China, authorized the company to display, sell and license others to use images of the relevant brand in China. At the same time, it is confirmed that the plaintiff has the right to take any form of legal action, including civil action, in China in its own name and in its own name, against any unauthorized use of all images by any third party. The electronic data evidence obtained through the trusted time stamp service system can prove that the defendant Xi 'an True Love Company Beijing Branch used the pictures involved in the case on its registered Weibo public account "True Love Beijing Chinese Restaurant" without the authorization of the plaintiff, which violated the information network transmission right of the plaintiff's photographic works involved in the case, and should bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

Due to the development of social life, the Internet has gradually become a necessity of contemporary people's life, and with the electronic birth of works, there is the proliferation of "piracy". What the infringer in this case infringes is the right of information network transmission in copyright. Xi 'an True Love Service Company, without the authorization of the corresponding copyright owner, uses the pictures involved in the case and spreads them on the Internet for profit, which infringes the copyright owner's right of information network, and it should bear the corresponding responsibility for its infringement. In real life, many enterprises are not yet strong in this regard, and their employees often use pictures or other materials on the Internet at will based on the needs of copywriting in the process of enterprise operation. In the case of weak intellectual property protection, this situation will not be held accountable, but with the strengthening of intellectual property legislation, law enforcement, and the strengthening of the awareness of ordinary people and right holders, this kind of arbitrary use of other people's intellectual property will be more and more expensive, and enterprises need to change their concept and take it seriously.