Showing posts with label intellectual property lawyer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intellectual property lawyer. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 February 2020

Philippines Marks Higher Score In International Intellectual Property Index


International Intellectual Property

With the implementation of new anti-counterfeiting and piracy measures, the Philippines has improved its score by around 4 percent in the United States Chamber of Commerce’s (USCC) 2020 International Intellectual Property Index.

Ranking 37th out of total 53 economies, the Philippines scored 39.94% in 2020 index in comparison to its 36% score in 2019. Reports showed that the key strength of the Philippines is in the IP framework that includes:

  • Amendments to the IP code to strengthen criminal sanctions
  • The fast-tracking procedure for Trademark Registration
  • Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) given in legislation
  • Incentives for research and development (R&D)
  • Growing specialization
  • Capacity Building.

On the other side, gaps in life sciences and content-related IPRs, online and software piracy, and barriers for licensing technology are reported as some of the weaknesses of the Philippines.
Abbreviated as IPOPHL, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines said that considering three additional economies in the index, Philippine standing reached 70% to the top, from 74% in the previous year.

IPOPHL officer-in-charge, Director General Teodoro Pascua, said that they welcome the verdicts of USCC-GIPC (Global Innovation Policy Center). They are happy and thankful for its positive and careful observation of the progress of their nation’s IPRs environment, especially on enforcement entrenched in IPOPHL’s effort to protect creativity and innovation.

Considering the Philippine Online Infringing Act, the USCC-GIPC is expecting that the Philippines would score higher in the 2021’s report. Under this Act, IPOPHL will be allowed to order the cancellation of an internet service provider’s operating license if it fails to remove the infringing content within ten days of notification.

IPOPHL added that these kinds of positive steps would lead to an increase in scores on relevant indicators, which will then make the index to monitor the developments in 2020 and upcoming years.

Mr. Pascua then added that 2020 would be an interesting year for IPRs Enforcement Office (IEO) and IPOPHL’s enforcement team who will be ironing out enforcement suggestions and guidelines to keep up with modern business models. He also said that IEO had identified some critical players in the supply chain of false trade with whom they believe they should engage. They desire to motivate them to set up their mechanisms to prevent counterfeiters, including those who are contributing to counterfeit trade by utilizing their channels for criminal operations, Pascua ended.  

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Friday, 10 January 2020

Sonos Enters Patent Infringement Dispute Against Google Over Smart Speaker Tech


intellectual property law

Smart speaker maker Sonos Inc. has recently filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming that the search giant has copied its patented home speaker technology.
California-based Sonos is in the business of making high-end home sound systems that users can control with their voice. Although the firm is famous for its quality indoor speakers, it also makes the related accessories, like amplifiers.
Through the Patent Infringement suits filed in the Log Angeles Federal District Court and with the U.S. International Trade Commission, the company is looking for financial damages and a sales ban on Google’s speakers, smartphones, and laptops, in the US market.
Sonos claimed that the features in the Google Home smart speakers infringed upon five of its patents, including technologies that enable their speakers to communicate and synchronize with each other wirelessly. The company further claimed that the scope of Intellectual Property (IP) infringement could be much bigger, potentially beyond the search giant.
Sonos, in a statement, said that Google had been blatantly and knowingly copying its patented technology in creating and selling the audio products under the search giant’s name. It then added that despite the repeated and extensive efforts made by its team over the last few years, Google hadn’t shown any willingness to work with it on a mutually beneficial solution.
Executives at Sonos told the New York Times that they provided Google with a list of around 100 patents found to be used unlawfully. They further told that Amazon’s Echo smart speakers are also believed to be violating a similar number of patents. Nevertheless, the company opted to limit the litigation to the lawsuit it is pursuing against Google because battling against both the tech giants at once would be a risk.
Both Google and Amazon, on their part, have strongly pushed back the Sonos’ accusations. Google said that they are disappointed with Sonos’ move where the smart speaker maker brought these lawsuits rather than continuing negotiations in good faith and that they would battle against these claims and defend them vigorously. On the other side, Amazon’s spokesperson said that the Echo family devices and their multi-room music technology were developed independently by Amazon.
It is predicted that the recently launched lawsuit against Google will only complicate Sonos’ tense partnership with the search giant and Amazon. Besides, in the big picture, the lawsuit may add fuel to the upsurging pressure tech giants are having from competitors. Sonos revealed that after it started asking for patent licensing feeds, Google added new technical caveats to their partnership. However, Congressional staff members discussed having Sonos Chief Executive Officer – Patrick Spence – testify on the matter before the House antitrust subcommittee. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Friday, 3 January 2020

Apple Signs Multi-year License Agreement for Imagination’s Intellectual Property


intellectual property right protection

UK chip designer Imagination Technologies Group has recently revealed that it's struck a new license agreement with Apple Inc., an American Multinational Technology Company, reviewing a business relationship that had all but ended in recent years.
The company that was sold for 500 million pounds to Chinese buyout firm - Canyon Bridge Capital Partners - in September 2017, said that it formed a new multi-year license agreement in which Apple, the iPhone maker has access to a wide range of Imagination’s Intellectual Property (IP) in exchange for license fees.
In the beginning, Apple tended to use either graphics chips or GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) in its iPhones and iPads that were designed by using IPs of Imagination Technologies. However, later it moved to its own internal chip designs starting with iPhone X in 2017 and the iPad Pro in 2018. Besides these models, the US Company used its own graphics processors in Apple watches as well. Then in 2017, the company told Imagination Technologies that it would stop using their IP in new products within a small period of two years.
When it comes to Imagination Technologies, then a public company, proclaimed the loss of Apple as its biggest customer, its stock plummeted. The British company in 2018 said that there could be 'material uncertainty' regarding its future if Apple doesn't pay royalties on the largest generation of iPhones and iPads.
As per several reports observed till now, it is unclear whether or not Apple has paid the fees to Imagination Technologies. However, the British company argued that it would be very challenging for Apple to design GPUs in a way that enables the American company not to pay royalties to Imagination Technologies.
If we talk about Apple, the iPhone maker often uses a combination of supplier deals and acquisitions for building up its portfolio of patents and designs. For instance, last year also, it acquired Intel Corporation’s modem unit to design cellular chips for its future devices.
Although none of the two companies specified which IP the new agreement covers, it may possibly be related to either Artificial Intelligence (AI) or graphics, two main IPs of Imagination Technologies.
Though the IP covered in the latest agreement between the two companies has not been disclosed so far, yet it is expected that the Imagination's IPs, which are associated with AI and graphics, could be a key to the future Apple devices. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Thursday, 26 December 2019

Baidu Files Patent Application For ML-Based Audio Synthesis Ownership


intellectual property right protection

By catching the attention and likes of Tencent and Huawei, Baidu has topped as the leading artificial intelligence (AI) Patent Application leader. Apart from this, Baidu (with 1,237 patent applications) is also leading in the highly competitive area of intelligent driving, as many reports stated.
Victor Liang, Vice President & General Counsel Executive Assistant to CEO at Baidu, said that they retained the top position for AI-related patent applications in China because of their:
  • Constant investment and research in developing AI
  • Strategic focus on patents
After years of research and development, Baidu has now developed a comprehensive AI ecosystem, and therefore, is at the leading spot of the AI industry worldwide.

Patents focused and filed by Baidu encompass a wide range of domains, including:
  • Deep learning (1,429 patents)
  • Speech recognition (933 patents)
  • NLP – Natural Language Processing (938 patents)
While Baidu acquired top position in China, its R&D center located in the US had filed patent applications in the US patent office also.
In this patent US20190355347A1, which is for a computer-implemented method to train a neural network model for spectrogram inversion with the title – Spectrogram to waveform synthesis using convolutional networks, Baidu lists the following points:
  • Inputting an input spectrogram, including many frequency channels into a CNN (convolution neural network).
  • Outputting a synthesized waveform from CNN for the input spectrogram, which has a corresponding ground truth waveform.
  • Using the synthesized waveform, the corresponding ground truth waveform, and the loss function, consisting of at least one or more loss components opted from convergence loss spectral.
  • Using the loss to update the CNN.
  • A clear mention of using the CNNs (convolutional neural networks).
As CNN is the lifeblood of several contemporary ML-based applications, any claim, even on a small part, can create damages in the long run.
The current year has witnessed a sudden and rapid growth of interest in owning algorithms and deep learning. So, even if the plans are to protect the researches from falling prey to pseudo players, this trial appears as a slippery slope where owners of big businesses can leverage the smaller companies that are using advanced technology.
In Baidu’s case, too, there lie risks of losing ownership to various audio processing applications. Contributed to the increasing fear among the ML community, Baidu is a Chinese company. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) vision of this company was fortified with projects such as Apollo, which is an open-source independent driving platform together with many other intelligent driving innovations.
China has allegedly been found involved in Intellectual Property (IP) thefts, especially from US companies. Hence, when Baidu’s foreign division files a patent application, one cannot assist but think about the consequences of handing the ownership to China that continued to be the world’s leading source of fake goods, exhibiting its failure to take crucial action to restrain the widespread manufacture, sale, and export of bogus goods. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com


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Monday, 23 December 2019

How’s The Patent Application Process In India Affected By 2019’S Amendments?


intellectual property right protection

The Indian government, along with administrators and several Intellectual Property Law Firms in India, has recently taken a considerable step to motivate inventors to get involved in more and useful inventions. With this welcome move by the concerned authorities, the Patent Application Process in India has become not just cheaper but easier as well.

The Patent Amendment Rules 2019, which came into force on 17th September, reflect the below-given four major changes: 
1.     Submission of Original Documents Only Upon Request
Although the Indian Patent Office in 2016 had dismissed the requirement to provide hard copies of the patent forms and specification while applying for Patent Registration in India, certain documents were still needed to be submitted at the IPO in their original form. Some such documents include the Power of Authority, verified English translations of Priority and PCT documents, etc.
Under the unamended rules, the applicants need to submit the original documents at the IPO within 15 days from the day of their online submission. Nonetheless, as per the rules amended in 2019, the applicants no longer have to do so. They can file their duly authenticated documents only by electronic transmission. The exception where original documents are required to be submitted within fifteen (15) days of a request is if the IPO asks the applicant for the same.
2.     Women and Many Others Can Enjoy Expedited Examination
In 2016, the government added the Patent Application Process in India with the provision of expedited examination. Under the unamended rules, this provision had limited the number of applications to be examined within twelve months, i.e., the expedited period. Moreover, it was open for only two categories of applicants, including:
  • Start-ups,
  • Applicants who mention India as an International Searching Authority (ISA) or an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) in their applications

The amended rules concerning the provision of expedited examination have come up as a beneficial change for many other applicants, like:
  • Small entities
  • Female applicants
  • Government entities, such as:
  • Different government departments
  • Institutions wholly or largely financed by the government
  • Institutions established by the Central, Provincial, or State Act
  • Government companies as specified in Section 2(45) of the Companies Act, 2013
  • Applicants who are suitable to process patent applications compatible with agreements amid IPO and a foreign Patent Office.
3.     Form 28 Needs to be filed
As the amended rules say, the start-ups now have to submit documents supporting their start-up status along with Form 28, each time whether they file a request, form, or document at IPO. The filing of such documentary evidence claiming start-up status will prove helpful in ensuring that the applicant is eligible for claiming the suitable deduction in the fee.
4.     Zero (0) Transmittal Fee
As discussed above, the amended rules have made the Patent Application Process in India easier as well as cheaper. Under these rules, the previously applicable transmittal fee for PCT applications at the IPO through the e-filing module has been abandoned. Additionally, the applicants don’t have to pay fees for the certified copies of priority documents and their e-transmission by the WIPO Digital Access System (DAS). Even the costs for filing PCT and convention applications have been reduced.
Before 2019’s amendments, i.e., under unamended rules, the applicants were required to pay a transmittal fee of INR 3200 for start-ups, INR 8000 for small entities, and INR 16,000 for corporates. Furthermore, fees of INR 1000 for start-up, INR 2500 for small entities, and INR 5000 for corporates for receiving a certified copy of a priority document with around 30 pages were applicable under unamended rules.

Wrapping Up:
These recently amended rules will undoubtedly be going to increase the number of patent filings in India as they are providing opportunities to women, small entities, etc., in addition to those who are eligible to file patent applications and get Patent Registration in India before amendments. Moreover, these ensure easier and cheaper patent application process that ultimately buzz off the applicants’ hesitation, thus making them confident to file their applications without any worry. Hence, we can say that this welcome move by the government of India will benefit not only the people but also the nation. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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CII Reports Intellectual Property Can Be Valuable Collateral For Financing

intellectual property right protection

The 5th edition of CII’s (Confederation of Indian Industry) flagship annual Intellectual Property (IP) conference focused on creating IP-led technology for a $5 trillion economy has recently released a report showing global examples to represent the virtues of using IP as collateral for financing.
Visualized by CII and co-created by Duff & Phelps, the report said that being the third-largest economy for start-ups in the IP industry, including technology and pharmaceuticals, India is standing at the verge of IP revolution. Although the government initiatives like the release of the National IPR Policy in 2016 to spur interest in Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) commercialization have been institutionalized, India’s IP financing process is still quite slow.
What are the reasons for the slow pace of IP financing In India? As the report said, unwillingness to treat IP as a business asset, challenges in IP licensing, lack of uniformity in the valuation of IPs, insufficient market, and legal infrastructure to monetize IP assets are some of the main reasons for the slow pace of IP financing in the country.
What is IP-backed financing? IP-backed financing refers to the approach of using IP assets to achieve access to credit. Nowadays, more and more MNCs (Multinational Corporations) and SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) are selling their IP assets in exchange for finance. Besides, lending institutions worldwide are considering IP as collateral while extending loans. In general, IP assets are used to secure asset-based loans. However, if collateralized, then they can be used to increase the available credit. Note that in the cases where borrowers guarantee their IP, no matter patents, trademarks, or copyright, as collateral, the collateral pool upsurges in value and potential for a successful loan. In simple words, with ideas and innovations emerging as the key driver of the businesses, financing base that supports the IP’s commercialization is remarkably crucial.
Mr.Arvind Thakur, Chairman, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property & Senior Advisor to the Board, NIIT Technologies, while commenting on the report, said that using IP as collateral will help the industries and banks to develop a good understanding of the subject matter and gain profits.
He continued by saying that according to CII’s belief, IPRs should be at the central stage for competing in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a meaningful way. Moreover, it is expected that this would open new scopes of financing in India.
Following Mr.Arvind, Aviral Jain, Managing Director Valuation Advisory Services and Co-Head, Restructuring, Duff & Phelps, said that the nation needs to have a mechanism for obtaining financial support and a robust marketplace. India can take lessons from IP friendly nations such as Korea and Singapore that have taken steps to create an IP financing ecosystem. The schemes introduced to flourish the IP sector in these countries benefit SMEs, Start-ups, and even lending institutions.

Other Key Findings of this Recently Launched Report Are As Follows:
  • When the regulatory environment is emerging globally, and initiatives to give impetus to IP-based financing are underway, economies like Singapore display a sophisticated regulatory environment and a robust infrastructure for IP financing.
  • Over the past five years, IP financing transactions in areas where IP is used as collateral have declined globally.
  • There’s an increase in global PE (private equity) funds that are not just investing in IP-based companies but also helping to protect IP in certain situations. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Friday, 20 December 2019

China To Reinforce Protection For Intellectual Property Rights


intellectual property right protection

The Chinese government, through the medium of a document it issued earlier this week, has revealed its desire to improve the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), an issue reflecting at the center of trade matters with the United States (US).
The document launched recently is a joint directive by the General Offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Chinese State Council, aimed at strengthening the protection of Chinese IPRs between accusations from the US stating that China has stolen the American IP.  The directive laid out China’s goal of reinforcing IPRs protection over the next two years by raising the upper limits for compensation related to the infringement of such rights.
According to the excerpts provided by the Chinese State Council, the directive reads that increasing IPRs protection is one of the most significant ways to improve the IPR system and to boost up the economic competitiveness of China. The new guidelines also revealed that China would multiply its efforts to enhance international cooperation on the protection of IPR, promote communication between foreign and domestic rights holders, and provide support in overseas IPR disputes.
The document also discussed China’s plan to increase the protection of trade secrets, confidential business data, and source codes and speed up the procedure to introduce a punitive compensation system for violation of patents, copyrights, or other IPRs.
The measures came after considering that the disputes over the theft of Intellectual Property (IP) have roiled the trade negotiations amid the world’s two largest economies, i.e., the U.S. and China scramble to reach phase-one of a trade deal.  The development came as investors have been scaling back their hopes for a phase-one agreement amid Beijing and Washington before the end of this year, i.e., 2019. This sort of deal was expected to provide the stage for dealing with chief concerns like a complaint made by the U.S against China, alleging that China steals intellectual property.
In an investigation made by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative last year, it was found that the intellectual-property theft by China compels the U.S to face a loss between $225 billion and $600 billion a year.
Ultimately, the document claimed that by 2022, China would be making progress in matters that have affected IPRs enforcement, like high costs, low compensation, and the difficulty of proof. And also that by 2025, the nation would have implemented an upgraded system of IPR protection. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Thursday, 12 December 2019

Imagion Biosystems Obtains Patent From India


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Imagion Biosystems Limited, an Australian firm dedicated to improving healthcare through early detection and research for diseases like cancer by using the latest diagnostic imaging technology, has recently obtained a patent from India. By bringing biotechnology and nanotechnology together, Imagion aims to recognize cancer and other diseases earlier, thus making it possible for the patient to recover at the early stages.
The recent patent – #320872 – from the Indian Patent Office has been issued for the company’s core Intellectual Property (IP) associated with detection, analysis, and imaging of diseases by using magnetic nanoparticles. The new patent has added India to the Imagion’s existing global market coverage, including Australia, Israel, Russia, Japan, and the US. And, if we talk about the term of this newly issued Indian patent, then it extends to the year 2030.
As per the data provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the number of patients getting a diagnosis of this disease in India is expected to increase to 1.41 million by 2026 from 1.15 million in 2018. Alongside these statistics, the Indian Council of Medical Research abbreviated as ICMR has reported that lung cancer and breast cancer are the two most common cancers from which the residents in the country often suffer. It also stated that around sixty percent of patients having breast cancer get diagnosed in the late stages.
Bob Proulx, Executive Chairman of Imagion Biosystems Limited, said that this patent grant is a significant addition to their IP portfolio. He added that sadly, the cases of cancer (particularly breast cancer) in India following the rest of the world are continuously and rapidly growing. In nations like India, where the diagnosis usually occurs at late stages, there is a remarkable opportunity to impact the survival rates. Thus, their technology to detect disease at the early stages without using radiation or invasive procedures appears to meet an unmet need in the areas of cancer diagnosis and management.
The current focus of ImagionBiosystems is on diagnostic imaging addressing a $2 billion market globally. In the specific, the Imagion’s magnetic nanoparticles technology looks emphasizing lung, breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers.
It is expected that due to the large size of the population and its continuous growth, along with the development of the new cancer diagnostic technology in India, the nation will soon become a growing part of the addressable global market. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com
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Thursday, 5 December 2019

Importance Of Industrial Design In Wrist-Based Wearable Industry

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As far as the look is concerned, the wrist-based wearable or watches that proffer heart-rate monitoring aren’t much different from their analog or mechanical counterparts. Undoubtedly, most of these gadgets have similar watch faces, wrist bands, and even the equipment such as the PPG (photoplethysmography) sensor to make the operations like heart-rate measurement possible. These sensors, which rest as an essential component within the wrist-based wearable, often fail to detect the heart-rate appropriately. Nowadays, most of the designers or manufacturers of wearable gadgets suffer from losses due to this concern. If you are also one amongst them, relax as this article has brought a precise solution to this concern. Here, you will become aware of the challenges that these modern devices can face, along with the appropriate way with which you can get rid of the same. Building the wearable with an appropriate Industrial Design is one of the best ways to keep these challenges at bay. Read below to see how.

Challenges
Amongst a lot of challenges that the PPG sensor of wrist-based wearable can face, the most common one is that while activities like jogging, the sensor even senses the changes in the blood volume related to motion take place as the wearable press and deform the blood vessels under the skin. It makes the PPG sensor to create confusions by sensing and mixing up the ratings based on the changes in blood volume and the reflected light intensity. Another factor that compels the PPG sensor to generate ambiguities in heart-rate detection is LED scattering. In the cases of repetitive arm motion due to running or jogging, badly designed wearable creates an air gap amid the photodiode and users’ skin. This air gap leads to scattering, and repetitive scattering can result in degrading the cardiac-associated PPG element from the spectrum. It ultimately turns distinguishing the required cardiac signal into a difficult task.

Measures to Resolve Challenges and Enhance Accuracy of Heart-rate Monitoring in Wrist-based Wearable
Providing wrist-based wearable with the appropriate industrial design is one of the best ways to keep them away from several challenges or glitches. The proper industrial design of your wearable will let you achieve precise heart-rate monitoring outcomes. To understand it better, go through the below example where two spectrograms – one from a poorly designed watch and other from an optimized ID have been observed. The two spectrograms are the outcomes of synchronized accelerometer signals and PPG sensor signals recorded during treadmill running and slow walking. The PPG signal relies on both the motion-related pattern and heart-rate induced pattern, and therefore, the spectrogram of an appropriately designed wrist-based wearable will show a precise spectral density of the accelerometer and PPG sensor as per the optimal industrial design. In this case, the heart-rate frequency is clearly visible, regardless of whether the user is running or walking, and thus, is easily separable from motion frequency. Nevertheless, in the case of wearable designed without focusing on proper industrial design, the spectrogram showcases either faded or invisible heart-rate. Besides, these poorly designed watches, if wore tightly, can stress the blood beds under the user’s skin. It then decreases the blood perfusion and generates difficulty in isolating heart-rate frequency and motion frequency from each other. According to the statistics obtained through this example, designing wrist-based wearable by emphasizing industrial design is imperative. It requires working on several characteristics of ID, some of which are as follows:

1. Optical distance between the photodiode and the LED light source
The distance amid the LED light source and the photodiode is a vital factor that determines signal quality and light-source intensity (battery life). If the gap is short, the photodiode will not receive reflected light from the blood. Nonetheless, if it is large, then the reflected light will turn weak and lower down the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, increasing the LED current blindly may overfill photodiode’s output, which then fails to provide the information required for heart-rate detection. So there is a need to maintain an appropriate (neither too less nor too much) distance between LED light source and photodiode.

2. Component’s Weight Distribution within Case
Distribution of the components’ weight is a factor essential for reducing the rocking motion of the wearable. As users often prefer watches with scratch-resistant faces, manufacturers’ preference for scratch-resistant glasses is quite high, but the existence of heavy glass on the top covering all other components of the watch exacerbates the rocking motion. Hence, both the component designer and Industrial Designer should work together to evade this top-heavy weight distribution.

Final Thoughts
As per the above information, we can conclude that precise heart-rate monitoring from wrist-worn watches depends not wholly but widely on their industrial design. That’s why it is crucial to emphasize the challenges and approaches to remove them at the ID stage itself. Hopefully, the article has provided you with most of the information that you need in this field. However, if you are still looking for additional info, feel free to contact professionals who deal with rendering services related to Industrial Product DesignFor more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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