CES 2021 AIPLUX Technology develops LOFA, a one-stop multilingual platform for global IP protection

TAIPEI, Jan. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to the impact of the pandemic, the U.S. Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 ushers in an all-digital show for the first time in history. AIPLUX Technology is also invited by Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) to participate in the event with 99 other teams on behalf of startups in Taiwan.

e-Commerce Grows Year after Year, While Trademark Protection Falling Behind. Losses Amounted to Tens of Billions Demand Immediate Solution

"Transnational e-Commerce companies and platforms such as Amazon, Taobao, etc. are blooming, but the transnational trademark protection of brands has not kept up with the pace, thus leading to tens of billions of dollars in losses for international brands and emerging creators. What was the cause?" Alfred Wu, Founder of AIPLUX asked.

The Annual Report of "2019 World Intellectual Property Indicators" published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) points out that the number of trademark applications worldwide has grown from more than two million per year to more than 10 million per year in the past two decades with an increase of more than 400%, but the proportion of transnational applications has fallen from 42.1% to 20.9%.

Traditional Application Incurs High Costs, Involves Cumbersome Processes, and Takes Much Time

Alfred Wu, the founder of AIPLUX Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AIPLUX") established AIPLUX for the aforementioned reasons.

Most traditional companies ask a law firm to handle their domestic trademark applications, and thus spending much time and labor cost on back-and-forth communication and correspondence. In general, it takes at least one to two weeks from initiating an application to the actual delivery of the application before filing the application.

Due to the restrictions of the laws and regulations of different countries, an international trademark application is usually entrusted to a local firm, and then the case is handed over to a foreign agent for application. Such cumbersome process takes much more time and cost, and the service fee charged by the local firm is quite high and prohibitive.

Alfred has assisted hundreds of start-up companies, and each entrepreneur was full of ambition and hope and wanted to be the next new star, but only a few of them had started laying out their plan for the international intellectual property rights in the early stage of their business. A vast majority of the companies hold the attitude "Trademark squatting has not occurred to me yet, and why should I make such an investment that seems to be expensive and brings not much benefit" and do not understand that numerous disputes and lawsuits have arisen internationally without proper trademark protections, and many of these companies ignore the values and marginal effects brought by the protection of their brands.

In view of the insufficient trademark protection cause by such time-consuming application process and high-cost threshold, Alfred Wu of AIPLUX decided to tailor a more user-friendly, intuitive, convenient, and affordable online service for start-up companies and small and middle enterprises.

Fast and Convenient Platform Management, No Worries about International Applications

LOFA developed by AIPLUX is the world's first multinational and multilingual one-stop online platform for trademark application, evaluation, and management, and its functions include trademark application risk assessment, online application, class recommendation system, and a complete one-stop online service from the receipt of trademark certificate to extension. The countries of application include Taiwan, U.S., China, etc. (and more to come), and more user-friendly, you can choose Chinese, English, or Japanese, etc. for filing an international application online according to the chosen country.

Before filing, users can use the trademark application risk assessment system to learn about the status of use of their own trademarks or brand names in different countries and further study the application strategies of the benchmarking companies in the industry. When filing the application formally, the user can combine the class recommendation system with the built-in search engine for trademark classes to complete the application easily.

If the user also wants to register for a foreign trademark after filing a domestic application, the user can use the copy function for the case and complete the conversion through the system. The user can also use the platform to manage and maintain the possessed trademark case or transfer its ownership easily.

Lowering the Threshold of Application, Assisting Taiwan to Create Own Brands

Alfred Wu, the founder of AIPLUX leads the team to create the LOFA platform with a vision that through the platform, automation and AI model to assist and lower the threshold for international trademark applications, the brands of entrepreneurs and creators can finally obtain the legal protection they deserve.

LOFA platform reduces the required application time by 90% (each application can be completed within 5 minutes) and lowers the service charge by more than 60%. Under the cooperation plan with Taipei City Government, this platform further feeds back free trademark application for people of innovation projects in the society, in hope of assisting more Taiwanese startup companies to create their own brands.

The concept to AIPLUX's LOFA platform was originally intended to serve as Booking.com and AirAsia for the trademark industry and integrate scattered regulatory information and registration channels of different countries for trademark applicants, so as to save unnecessary services and fees, and ultimately provide a more friendly trademark service, just like a self-service tour that allows one to travel anywhere anytime.

Planning the Layout of International Market, AIPLUX Is Ready to Grow in Post-pandemic Era

Since 2019, AIPLUX has been actively participating in international startup programs. At present, the footprint of its international awards has been all over Taiwan (FITI Program Outstanding Startup Award), Japan (Fukuoka Growth Next Award), U.S. (IPR Gorilla Top IP Start-ups Award), Luxembourg (Fit 4 Start Programme), France (HLF #1 Award, YEi Program), and other places and has also been invited and sponsored by Singapore, France, and Japan to create overseas subsidiary to work together for the internationalization of brands and trademark protections. Alfred Wu, the founder of AIPLUX said that AIPLUX's goal at this stage is to cooperate with 50 international incubators and assist 500+ companies to obtain trademark protection, and it is expected that more Taiwanese brands will go global after the pandemic eases in 2021.

CES 2021 TTA-VR Pavilion: https://pse.is/3bxxbs

SOURCE AIPLUX Technology Ltd.