What is the purpose of a bill of lading?

A bill of lading, often abbreviated as B/L, is the ticket outlining the journey of your cargo from origin to its destination. Much like an airline issuing a ticket to a passenger, a B/L is issued by a carrier to a shipper detailing the method and path of a shipment, be it by any combination of air, sea, road, or rail. It functions as a contract for the movement of the goods, with the fine print – the terms of the contract – frequently outlined on the back of the courier bill. It also serves as a receipt for the cargo and can act as proof of ownership of the goods being transported.

In short, it’s an important document!

The Who of your Bill of Lading:

Much like a ticket, it outlines the players involved with your shipment, including:

• The shipper & consignee of the goods
• The carrier who issued the Bill of Lading
• The origin freight forwarder
• The destination freight forwarder / arrival agent who handles your shipment when it reaches the U.S.
• The freight payer – either prepaid or collect – which indicates who is paying for the transportation. This will either be the seller or buyer. Who pays is indicated by the Incoterms, a very important part of the negotiation between the seller and the buyer. Look out for a post about Incoterms, coming soon!

The What of your shipment:

The Bill of Lading outlines what goods are being shipped and any specific handling instructions. This information will include:

• The content of the shipment, e.g. hanging garments, electronics, food
• The type of inner packaging, e.g. boxes, crates, sacks, drums, rolls or any number of ways that items are packaged
• The type of outer packaging, e.g. “1000 boxes on 10 pallets,” or “40’ container, said to contain (STC) 32 pallets”
• Any identifying markings or characteristics
• If the shipment is being transported by air, each shipment is labelled with the airline’s Master Airway Bill number (MAWB) and, in some cases, the origin freight forwarder’s House Airway Bill number (HAWB).
• Specific handling instructions, e.g. keep upright, keep cold, avoid freezing, fragile, etc.
• Any specific requirements should always be addressed with your supplier, forwarder, or carrier before shipping. Additionally, consider obtaining a quote for cargo insurance. Damages happen more frequently than you might think.
• The weight and volume of your cargo

The Where of your precious cargo

The Bill of Lading maps out the journey that your shipment will undertake to get from your seller to you, with details such as:

• The shipment’s origination
• The shipment’s destination
• The route it is taking to get from one place to the other
• The date the shipment is received for transport
• The flights / vessel(s) / trucks the shipment is planned to move on

Like booking airline, shipment bookings can take many forms and routes; like travel, the more stops and the slower it is, the cheaper it is to get there. Thus it’s not unusual for a shipment originating in Indonesia to stop by Singapore before continuing on to a port on the U.S. west coast. Once there, it can be loaded onto a train or truck headed to a de-consolidation warehouse in New York, where it will be sorted for a local trucker to deliver it the last mile to the buyer’s warehouse.

 

Nichia targets SSL manufacturers, retailers, and distributors in LED-centric patent actions

Although Nichia is an Outdoor Led Screens Supplier, the company has targeted lighting manufacturer Feit, major US retailer Lowes, and distributors in legal actions seeking damages based on SSL products sold with integrated LEDs that infringe a long-standing patent.

 Nichia has filed three separate patent-infringement suits in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas seeking damages from organizations that sell LED-based lighting products that presumably integrate LEDs that infringe Nichia's US Patent No. 8,530,250 (the 250 patent). The legal actions target Outdoor Led Screens Factory; US home improvement retailer Lowes and distributor L G Sourcing that supplies Lowes; and distributor Mary Elle Fashions (Meridian Electric).

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Nichia has staunchly defended the 250 patent in the past, but this action is different in that a manufacturer, a retailer, and distributors were targeted. Each of those targets could very well be direct or indirect customers for Nichia LEDs and indeed might even have Nichia-based solid-state lighting (SSL) products in their current supply chain.

Nichia did not detail the infringement, but almost certainly it is based on Nichia's belief that the lighting products identified are based on LEDs that infringe the 250 patent. In each case, Nichia said it would seek an injunction against one or more products and damages based on past infringement via lighting products sold by the suit targets.

Everlight Electronics has been the most frequent target of Nichia intellectual property (IP) actions in the past, especially related to the 250 patent. Back in February, Nichia said it had won a Texas court decision against Everlight that was the result of a suit first filed in 2013. But Everlight has fired back repeatedly. In the spring of 2015, Everlight said US and German courts had ruled in its favor against Nichia relative to other patents.

In the latest action, Nichia identified specific infringing products. In the case of Feit, Nichia targeted the BPOM60/830/LED lamp that is an omnidirectional A-lamp — an 800-lm replacement for a 60W incandescent lamp. In the case of Lowes, the suit targets the Utilitech Pro 24-in. strip light that is an alternative to a linear fluorescent fixture. And in the case of Meridian, Nichia targeted a decorative night light and a replacement for a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL).

A number of Nichia patents that it has wielded in a powerful fashion in the past decade will expire next year. But the 250 patent was only issued in 2013. The 250 patent is focused squarely on a low-cost Hd Indoor Led Displays manufacturing methodology for mid-power LEDs in which a leadframe is sandwiched in a molding die with adhesive resin then injected to form the body of the LED package.

Feit, meanwhile, remains in a protracted IP battle with Cree. In early 2015, Cree filed against Feit and Feit supplier Unity Opto Technology, claiming Feit products infringed ten patents. Subsequently Feit counter-sued Cree in mid-2015. Then just last month Cree added two new infringement allegations to its Feit suit.