Jill Jusko
April 23, 2024
Cybercriminals aren’t the only thieves with their eyes on manufacturers, only the most recent. Hypertherm Associates recently chalked up a big win in its global battle against patent infringers. In March, the Hanover, N.H.-based manufacturer of industrial cutting products reported that it had secured victory in a five-years-long battle against Chinese manufacturer Changzhou Termmei (TRM) for what Hypertherm said was an infringement on its Duramax Electrode and PowerPierce XD shield patents from 2017 to 2019.Moreover, Hypertherm collected what it described as the “largest damages award” it had ever secured in China. While the company declined to provide an exact award figure, Brett Hansen, Hypertherm’s director of intellectual property, said “it was definitely painful” for the offending party.“It’s our largest win in China to date,” he says.That’s not Hypertherm’s only recent bout with IP infringers. Earlier in 2023, the manufacturer reported that raids in the United Arab Emirates of two connected counterfeiting operations had led to the seizure of hundreds of counterfeit Hypertherm consumables. In that event, the manufacturer teamed with a Dubai-based law firm and worked with the Dubai police to get the fakes off the market. Intellectual property infringement is a big issue for Hypertherm, an employee-owned company with a workforce of about 2,000. Hansen says the company has multiple IP issues open around the world, and he estimates the manufacturer loses several million dollars in sales a year to counterfeits and patent-infringing products in the aftermarket.The concern is big enough that the company has grown from having a single patent attorney to having a five-person intellectual property team. Moreover, the marketing and sales teams in Hypertherm’s Asia regional office in Shanghai have received IP training, “so they’re always looking for issues for us,” Hansen says. “It’s a companywide effort to make this happen.”Illegal Activity Takes a Global TollIt’s not just a Hypertherm or even a U.S. manufacturer concern, however. Within the past few months, the BMW Group and Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit announced they had won a joint civil lawsuit in Spain related to counterfeit parts. And in November, French sound systems manufacturer L-Acoustics held what it described as a “destruction event” in Tampa, Florida, to dispose of counterfeit speakers after winning a U.S. court judgment against a Florida rental company.Counterfeits and IP infringement are a global issue, with implications for product safety and quality, consumer health and manufacturers’ bottom lines. So even as cybersecurity threats (which include elements of IP theft) gain manufacturers’ attention, don’t lose sight of the tried-and-true methods schemers are using to make money on your pain. And don’t overlook actions you can take to reduce their success rates.