The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China recently issued a patent pre-warning report for China's smartphone makers that have already tapped into the Indian market. The report said that patents are more frequently being used as a weapon to attack competitors as market competition is intensifying. India is a big market for Chinese smartphones, on the one hand. But on the other hand, Chinese smartphone companies have been sued in Indian courts for IP disputes and their products seized by local customs in recent years. The disputes are mainly sued by foreign industry giants who have developed Indian markets for years other than India's local phone makers. In order to avoid the patent barriers becoming a weak point for Chinese phone makers when "going out", many of them have increased investments on patents and strengthened their research capacities. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Saturday, 13 December2014 (Source: China Daily)