The ongoing Expo Milano 2015 in Italy, a focus of worldwide attention, is being kept safe during its six-month run by a Chinese company's advanced security inspection equipment.

Beijing-based Nuctech Co Ltd provided the expo with a large mobile inspection device to check containers and vehicles coming in and out of the exhibition venue. Made with home-grown technology, the device has more than 100 patents.

Nuctech was founded in 1997 at Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious universities specializing in science and technology. It is now a leading security inspection service provider both in Chinese and overseas markets.

The company's scanners and monitoring machines have been sold to more than 130 countries and regions and are widely used in civil aviation, customs and urban subway and railway networks.

Nuctech also provides tailor-made products for high-level events, such as the Summit of the Americas this year, the 2014 World Cup tournament, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

During the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, for example, Nuctech leased about 600 pieces of equipment to use at 11 of the 12 World Cup stadiums across the country.

Currently, Nuctech has developed more than 160 types of security inspection products in 21 categories, from X-ray imaging to radiation detection, with proprietary intellectual property rights.

The company has focused on IP protection and management since its establishment to maintain a competitive edge amid fierce global industrial competition.

"Most of our customers are from overseas and our major foreign rivals who are concentrated in the United States and Europe are adept at operating and managing IP rights, so Nuctech considers the IP issue a top priority and has implemented a comprehensive IP strategy for years," Chen Wei, vice-president of the company, told China Daily.

"We organize IP-related training for new employees and have incentives to encourage researchers to file patent applications," Chen said.

Nuctech now has more than 400 technicians and researchers and every year its research and development investment accounts for about 10 percent of the company's sales revenue. Last year, Nuctech generated nearly 3.2 billion yuan ($515.2 million) in sales, he said.

The company filed more than 2,200 patent applications by the end of 2014, including 961 applications in 32 foreign countries. More than 1,200 patents were authorized. Nuctech also owns more than 200 Chinese and overseas trademarks.

Patent pre-warning analysis is another sector Nuctech highly values, according to Chen.

"Before entering into a new market, we will entrust professional IP agencies to do comprehensive patent searching and analysis of our products to avoid the risk of patent infringement," he said.

The company is also continuing to improve its overseas patent layout.

All these efforts have helped Nuctech win several IP lawsuits and project overseas bids.

In August 2011, for instance, the United States Patent and Trademark Office found that a patent application of a British research institute was similar to a Nuctech US patent.

To solve the problem, the US patent authorities applied the so-called interference proceeding, a system used in US patent law, to determine which applicant was the first to invent.

Chen said at the time the US had not shifted from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system, and the patent law ruled that companies or individuals who were the first to invented the technology owned the patent rights, which was different from most other countries.

The British research institute claimed it invented the related technologies earlier than Nuctech.

"The involved patent is a very important one, so losing the case would cause a huge negative impact to the company in terms of international patent layout and global marketing," Chen said.

After pouring lots of manpower and financial resources into collecting evidence and investigating, Nuctech successfully proved that it was first to invent and use the technologies so owned the US patent.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

Nuctech security equipment is used at the 2015 Summit of the Americas.Provided To China Daily

(China Daily 07/01/2015 page17)