Intellectual property and patents

Hi

My supplier in China claims to have a patent for their products which I have seen photos of but a company in the UK seems to have registered the designs for some of their products which I have found on the IPO website.

I'm not sure how any of this works, is this possible for both to have registered the product?
The Chinese supplier says I have permission to sell their products and does not seem familiar with the UK company but I'm unsure I can sell the product.

Any help or advice would be appreciated

 

Hi,

A patent lawyer would be the best person to answer this but there are different types of patents, such as "invention patent", "design patent" etc. Perhaps your supplier owns the invention patent, while the UK Company has the "design patent"?

The second issue may relate to the regional validity of the patent. It is also possible that your supplier's patent is not an international one? I guess its very hard to compare which patent would is valid in the UK, without studying the details of both the patents.