金华美佳科技公司是一家从事遮阳篷加工出口的外贸性企业，从产值不过几百万逐渐做大到出口额突破亿元大关，产品远销到欧美和非洲国家，公司的科技研发团队发挥了重要作用。但就在企业蒸蒸日上的时候，竞争对手却利用国外的专利向美佳的所有客户发出警告函，几乎所有的客户收到警告函之后都不敢下单进货，美佳公司上亿的成品货物滞留工厂，企业面临倒闭危机。

金华美佳公司聘请张民元律师团队担任公司专项法律顾问，破解国外客户收到专利警告函而停止下单进货的难题。

张民元律师带领“中观法律顾问”团队的成员深入工厂，与公司科研人员召开多次产品分析会和技术讨论会，在公司研发团队的共同努力下，美佳公司绕过国外专利的技术特征，研发了新的产品结构并且申请了中国专利。

张民元律师向美佳公司的所有海外客户发出专利不侵权的法律分析意见和律师建议书，并向客户承诺若侵权将由美佳公司承担全部的赔偿责任。国外客户收到律师意见书后纷纷下单出货，公司倒闭危机解除。

与此同时，国内竞争对手在宁波海关查封了美佳科技的出口产品，并且在宁波市中级人民法院提起侵权诉讼。张民元律师团队从容应诉，在对方主张相同侵权时以“禁止反悔”原则相对抗，宁波市中级人民法院依法判决美佳公司不侵犯专利权，对方不服上诉至浙江省高级人民法院，省高级人民法院二审判决维持不侵犯专利权的裁决。对方继续申诉至最高人民法院，最高人民法院仍维持了宁波中级人民法院的判决，并且将“在主张相同侵权时提出禁止反悔原则”作为经典指导案例刊登在人民法院报的案例指导栏目中。

美佳公司的专利战争取得完胜，成功突破国外知识产权贸易壁垒，从此产品出口海外畅通无阻，生意越做越大，越做越顺。张民元律师团队将该案作为典型案例，在浙江省知识产权宣传巡回演讲活动中多次宣讲，指导参会企业如何应对国外的知识产权壁垒，在国际商海大战中如何运用自主知识产权保护自身合法权利，如何合理利用知识产权武器打击竞争对手，破解国际贸易领域中的技术壁垒。

To help Chinese enterprises develop their own intellectual property rights, and break through the barriers of intellectual property rights in foreign trade

Zhejiang Homey Electrical Technology Co., Ltd. is a foreign trade corporation, which works on the process and export of awning. Its amount of exports has gradually expanded to more than one billion, and its products are exported to Europe, the United States and countries in Africa, in which the technology research and development team of the company plays an important role. However, as the enterprise has been becoming flourishing, its competitor issued a warning letter to Homey’s all customers making use of foreign patents, after that, almost all the customers were afraid to make an order stock. As a result, millions of finished goods were stranded in the factory, the enterprises faced a crisis of insolvency.

Zhejiang Homey Electrical Technology Co., Ltd. entrusted Lawyer Zhang’s team to serve as a special legal counsel for the company, solving the problem that foreign customers receive the patent warning letter and stop the purchase orders.

Lawyer Zhang led members of "Deep Research Legal Adviser" team into the factory, and convoked product analysis and technical seminars with scientific research personnel of the company for many times. Under the joint efforts of the research and development team, the company circumvented the technical features of foreign patent, developed a new product structure and applied for a patent in China.

Lawyer Zhang sent out legal analysis opinion and lawyer proposal of no infringement of the patent to all overseas customers of Homey. Further, he committed to the customers that if tort existed, the company would bear all the compensation liability. Foreign clients made orders one after another since they received the lawyer’s letter, thus, the bankruptcy crisis of the company was relieved.

At the same time, the domestic competitor seized the export products of Homey in Ningbo Customs, and litigated of tort infringement in the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court. The team of Lawyer Zhang dealt with it calmly and fought against the claim of “same infringement” with the "no regret" principle. Finally, the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court judged that Homey did not infringe the patent right according to the law. The domestic competitor refused to accept the decision and appealed to the Zhejiang Higher People's Court, however, the court affirmed the original judgment. Later, the competitor continued to appeal to the Supreme People's Court, the court still maintained the decision, and published "presenting ‘no regret’ principle when the same infringement is proposed" as a guide for classic cases in the case guidance column of People's Court Daily.

The patent war of Homey was completed successful, and it successfully breached the foreign intellectual property trade barriers. Since then, the export of products overseas has been unimpeded, and the business has become more and more flourishing. Lawyer Zhang’s team consider the case as a typical one, and have preached many time in intellectual property publicity speaking tour activities of Zhejiang province, in order to guide the attending enterprises to deal with foreign intellectual property barriers, and use their own intellectual property rights in the international trade war to protect their legal rights and interests, as well as to reasonably use the intellectual property weapons against the competitors to crack technology barriers in the field of international trade.