Recently, our firm won the first instance of an administrative litigation case for invalidation of an invention patent, in which it is ruled that the invention patent should be comp...
Introduction In the chemical field, it is difficult to seek invalidation of a patent claiming to have achieved unexpected technical effect. This case provides a strategy for success...
$100 Million Damages Awarded: Man Wah Holdings’ Product Lighten Cup Holder Infringes Raffle’s Patent Right
On June 17, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin found that Chinese furniture marker Man Wah Holdings Ltd., Inc. infringed multiple patents of U.S. furniture maker Raffel Systems, LLC and misappropriated the trade dress of Raffel’s products on purpose. A damage of approximately $100 million was determined. The technology involved in those patents is related to a multi-functional lighten cup holder mounted on furniture. (June 20th, IP Home)
$597 Million Trade Secret Case: Hytera escapes from Permanent Injunction but Required to Pay the License Fee to Motorola
On July 5, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois rejected a request filed by U.S. telecommunications equipment maker Motorola Solutions, Inc. deciding not to reconsider the issuance of a permanent injunction to Chinese company Hytera Communications Co., Ltd. This case is still pending as Motorola has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit over this ruling.
However, the District Court agreed with the parties’ joint proposal on patent licensing fees: Hytera would pay Motorola the license fee to compensate for the use at a rate of $80.32 per interphone and $378.16 per repeater.
Previously, Motorola sued Hytera for trade secrets and copyright infringement, claiming several former engineer employees stole thousands of Motorola's confidential technical documents and millions of lines of source code before leaving for Hytera.
In February 2020, a jury in the District Court determined that Hytera infringed Motorola's trade secrets and ordered to pay about $543 million in damages. Later, the judge awarded Motorola the prejudgment interest of more than $51 million and legal costs of more than $2.6 million, bringing the final damages to $597 million. (July 7th, IP Home)
Trademark and Unfair Competition
CNY 5.13 Million Damages Awarded for Trademark Right Infringment of "C'estbon" and Unfair Competition
The plaintiff, C'estbon, found that the defendant, Gesber, used its trademark “Cestbon” in online promotion, premises, exhibitions and other commercial activities, and purchased, registered, and used five domain names with “cestbon” as the main part. All these were alleged to constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition. Therefore, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit with Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, requesting the defendant to stop the infringement, eliminate the impact, and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and reasonable expenses totalling CNY 10 million.
After the trial, the court of the first instance held that the defendant Gesber prominent use of the mark involved on its official website, WeChat official account, business premises and other channels, and its self-proclaimed “C'estbon Group"(怡宝集团),“C'estbon People”(怡宝人), and “C'estbon Company”(怡宝公司) constituted trademark infringement; the defendant Gesber’s acts of registering and using the brand name of “C'estbon”, purchasing, registering, and using of the disputed domain name show its subjective intention of taking a free ride of the goodwill of the plaintiff's registered trademark, which has objectively caused confusion among the relevant public and constituted unfair competition.
As it was difficult to determine the actual loss of the plaintiff or the defendant's profit from the infringement, the court comprehensively considered the popularity of the registered trademark involved, the duration and scale of the infringement, the defendant's subjective malice, the profit margin of similar products and other factors, and ruled that the defendant shall compensate the plaintiff for the economic loss of CNY 5 million and reasonable expenses of CNY 137,240.
The defendant appealed to the Higher People's Court of Shanghai Municipality. Recently, the court rejected the appeal and made the final judgment upholding the first-instance judgement. (July 7, China’s Website for the Campaign Against IPR Infringements and Counterfeits)
CNY 5 Million Punitive Damages Issued to an Online Store for Altering Huawei’s Trademark and Displaying the Fake Authorization Letter
Recently, Huawei sued Shangpai Company over adding the word “Huawei”(华为) to the name of its products, using the mark of Huawei, and displaying the fake online sale authorization letter of Huawei to boost sales.
Therefore, Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province held that the defendant shall be liable for punitive damages after the trial, and the court supported Huawei's claim of CNY 5 million in full. (July 7, China News Network)
IP-related policy
Breaking: Amendment to Anti-Monopoly Law Passed and shall to Come into Effect as of August 1, 2022!
On June 24th, the 35th Session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee passed the Amendment to the Anti-Monopoly Law which will come into effect as of August 1, 2022. (June 24, IP Home)
2021 Annual Report on the Commercialization of China's Scientific and Technological Achievements Released
The 2021 Annual Report on the Commercialization of China's Scientific and Technological Achievements (The Chapter of Universities and Research Institutes) is released in Beijing. The report shows that China keeps active in the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. In 2020, China saw an increase in both the number of commercialization contracts and the contract amount signed by 3,554 universities and scientific research institutes on technology transfer, licensing, investment, consultancy and other commercialization ways. The total number of contracts reached 466,882 and the amount was up to CNY 125.61 billion. Among them, 261 universities and institutions exceeded CNY 100 million in the terms of the contract amount. (July 1, Science and Technology Daily)
