Enterprise News
China IP,[Comprehensive Reports]
HP Announced Legal Actions to Fight Against Global Infringing Cartridge Sales
In January 2015, HP announced a series of worldwide legal actions in its ongoing fight to combat the sale of infringing ink cartridges. In China, HP has filed patent litigation actions against Speed Infotech Ltd. of Shanghai (Speed Infotech) and Jingying Technology of Shenzhen. Speed Infotech is allegedly the authorized distributor of compatible ink cartridges in China for Microjet Technology Co. of Taiwan. Jingying Technology is allegedly the manufacturing entity responsible for the domestic assembly and sale of compatible cartridge components manufactured by 3-Ink Technology Co., Ltd of Taiwan. The claims against Speed Infotech involve infringement of three different HP patents in the distribution and sale of ink printhead cartridges. The claims against Jingying Technology involve patent infringement of the same three HP patents in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of inkjet printhead cartridges.
Novartis Owns the Patent Right of Chinese Artemisinin
In October 2015, Tu Youyou received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, which are used to treat malaria. However, the patent right of artemisinin is still regret of many Chinese pharmaceutical workers, because the patent right is not owned by Chinese. In 1994, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) and the multinational pharmaceutical giant Novartis signed a patent license agreement, under which, Novartis is responsible for Coartem research and development in the international arena, and the AMMS receives a certain amount of royalties. This agreement helps Coartem patented in many countries of the world, but also declares AMMS gives up Coartem international marketing rights.After many years of operation, Novartis has formed its own patent barriers in the field of Coartem patents field.
ZTE Signed 4G Patent Licensing Agreement with Teltronic
On March 1, 2016, ZTE Corporation announced that it signed a 4G patent licensing agreement with Spanish company Teltronic, part of the Sepura Group. The agreement further indicates ZTE’s global leadership in the field of 4G LTE technology. Under the terms of this royalty-bearing agreement, Teltronic will use ZTE patents to upgrade their mission critical communication infrastructure to support LTE functionality. Currently, Teltronic products are available in more than 50 countries and are being used in more than 300 projects, including transport, public security, oil & gas, utilities, mining and industry sectors.
Xiaomi Applied for Patent in Europe, Japan and Korea
The president of Xiaomi, Lin Bin recently said to the media that Xiaomi planned to apply for 4000 patents in 2015 and they have almost achieved it as of October 30. According to Lin Bin, these patents are applied not only in China but also in Europe, Japan and Korea. Among these patents, there are some core technology patents including hardware technology, software experience and comprehensive experience by combining the hardware and software, such as edge touch, children mood and face.
NIKE Sues Chinese Shoe Maker in US for Patent Infringement
In March 2016, the well-known international sports brand NIKE sued a Chinese shoe manufacturer for patent infringement. NIKE claimed that the Chinese footwear manufacturer Xiamen Bestwinn Imp. & Exp. Co., Ltd. (Bestwinn) had infringed NIKE at least 20 design patents by producing, using, selling and exporting sneakers identical to NIKE’s product in style and appearance, in and to US. A lawsuit filed by NIKE to the US Federal District Court in Nevada revealed that although NIKE had warned Bestwinn of the alleged patent infringement on several occasions, but the latter continued to produce and sell accused infringing shoes, including popular NIKE Flyknit series.
Midea Owns the World’s Largest Number of Home Appliance Patents
In May 2016, Thomson Reuters released the 2016 State of Innovation Report. The report shows that global total patent growth rate was 13.7% in 2015.Areas of fast growth are: medical devices (27%), home appliances (21%), aerospace and defense (15%), the oil & gas (14%), and information technology (13%).
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese enterprises, research institutions and universities have had an outstanding performance, in which Midea Group, Gree and Haier Group are the top three in the field of home appliances by the number of patents. Midea Group has ranked the first for two consecutive years by the number of invention patents. Chinese Academy of Sciences is among the top 10 contributors of articles in terms of home appliances, pharmaceutical and the semiconductor material sectors, and among the most influential research institutions in the world, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University rank the fourth and fifth respectively.
Sogou Sued Baidu for Input Method Patent Infringement
Following the filing of eight patent infringement lawsuits claiming for RMB80 million compensation to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in October 2015, in November the same year, Sogou filed another 9 patent infringement lawsuits respectively to Beijing Intellectual Property Court, Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and the Shanghai Higher People’s Court, alleging that Baidu input method patent infringes its patent right, and making a claim for RMB180 million compensation.
As to the Patent CN 1920754 B, it is an input method and system that can type WordArt/graphics into the application, allowing users to use smiley symbols in the text input method, and for this function alone, Sogou claimed for RMB100 million compensation against Baidu.
Currently, the series of cases are respectively heard by the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court and the Shanghai Higher People’s Court.
Huawei Patent Portfolio Helped its Sales Leap to the Second in Europe
It is shown in the 3Q 2015 smartphone market sales figures released in November 2015 by Kantar, a leading market research group, that Huawei has become Europe’s second-largest Android mobile phone brand, marking a large progress compared to the sixth place in last year.Kantar attributed this great progress to the increase of Huawei’s marketing investment, and the decline of Sony, HTC, Motorola and other manufacturer’s sales. In the Chinese market, in the 3Q 2015, Huawei cell phone market share grew by 72% on a year-on-year basis, followed closely after Xiaomi and Apple, ranking the third. Huawei has reserves a large number of patents, which is a great advantage for entry into the European market, the sales growth is also very closely related its huge patent portfolio.
Unwired Planet Wins First of Five Patent Trials Against Samsung and Huawei
Licensing company Unwired Planet has scored a double victory at the English High Court after it ruled that one of the company’s 4G standard-essential patents (SEPs) is valid and was infringed by Samsung and Huawei.
The judgment is the conclusion of the first of five trials concerning the validity and any scope of infringement of Unwired’s five European SEPs, as well as a non-SEP, by Samsung and Huawei Samsung and Huawei argue that the patents are invalid. A sixth trial determining whether Unwired breached European anti-competition law is due to start on October 16, 2016. Samsung and Huawei complained that Unwired abused its dominant market position by failing to license the SEPs on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
The five disputed SEPs were acquired by Unwired from Ericsson under a master sale agreement in January 2013. Unwired sued both Samsung and Huawei in March 2014 for allegedly infringing the six patents.
US HUYA Pay Fudan University USD650 Million for Patent License
On March 15, 2016 –HUYA Bioscience International (HUYA) signed an exclusive license agreement with Fudan University for the ex-China rights to a panel of novel inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) developed for more than 10 years by the research group of Fudan University. Under the agreement, HUYA will pay royalties up to USD6,500 by installments to Fudan University. It is understood that IDO inhibitors as new target, new mechanism, can be used in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, cataracts and other serious diseases, with broader social and economic prospects.
Baidu Accused of Plagiarism in Dial UI Design
On April 15, 2015, Baidu has launched its own watch OS called DuWear. Soon later, an article entitled “Today, I am copied by Baidu” alleged that DuWear watch dial was a plagiarism of the UI design of Ticwear, a Chinese smartwatch OS released by MOBVOI on December 19, 2014, a mobile voice search company, and alleged that two dials shown on DuWear official website had the identical UI design with Ticwear.
Victoria’ s Secret Wins Patent Infringement Dispute
In September, 2015, the Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management, Inc., the owner of lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret, won Shanghai Mice Investment Management Co. in the patent infringement and unfair competition dispute in the final judgment. The court upheld the verdict, ruling the defendant to cease its patent infringement and unfair competition activity of fraudulent advertising, pay RMB500,000 in compensation for the plaintiff’s economic losses and issue a declaration to eliminate the negative influence.
T-Mobile US Sued by Huawei Technologies over 4G Patents
Chinese telecommunication equipment company Huawei Technologies Co. has filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile US Inc. over the latter’s use of Huawei’s intellectual property covering 4G technology without license. The lawsuit was filed with the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in July 2016.
Huawei said that it had offered T-Mobile to license its patents in 2014, but the two parties had a disagreement over the fair valuation of the same. Note that Huawei has recently been focused on aggressive international expansion by accumulating patents and the company was the largest filer of patents last year under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.Interestingly, the company is not looking for a monetary settlement.Instead, the company simply wants the court to declare that it has met the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms so that it can force T-Mobile into resuming licensing negotiations.
T-Mobile US had sued Huawei over the latter’s use of phone testing robot technology in 2014. While the previous lawsuit is still in process, Huawei may have gained a bargaining advantage through its counter lawsuit, which could result in an early settlement of the disputes.
Huawei Ranks Top on Patent Applications
On March 16, 2016, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published international patent application data, according to which, China Huawei Technologies ranked the first for two consecutive years, and the highest ranking Japanese company was Mitsubishi Electric (the fifth). By the number of applications from countries, US ranks first, followed by Japan (second) and China (third). The number of patent applications from China increased by 17% over the last year, which exceeds US (7%), and Japan (4%) in comparison,.International patent filings worldwide reached 218,000 applications, an increase of 2% over 2014, reaching a record high. With the globalization of manufacturing, the number of enterprises that use the international filing system is increasing.
Netac Technology Got RMB 40 million Compensation for Patent Infringement
The patent lawsuit between Netac Technology and Watertek Co. Ltd. since May, 2012 has eventually made new progress. The two companies both announced on June 26, 2015 that they had received the firstinstance judgment by Nanning Intermediate People’s Court. The court ruled the defendants, Watertek Co. Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China Beihai Branch to cease their patent infringement of the invention patent No.ZL99117225.6 owned by the plaintiff Netac Technology, and to pay Netac Technology RMB40 million for economic loss. Watertek immediately claimed to appeal after received the ruling. It also claimed that the ruling will not have severe impact on its daily operation and profit making at present or afterwards.
Xiaomi Fined RMB30,000 for Advertising of Unauthorized Patent
In January 2016, Haidian Branch of Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce issued an administrative penalty decision to Xiaomi. According to the decision, upon investigation, Xiaomi since September 15, 2015 had advertised on its official website that it had applied for 46 patents on its “black technology” — MI4C Edge Control, among other textual representation. However, the patent was not granted but merely received the patent application number. The advertising was based on unauthorized patents. The above facts are evidenced by copies of business license, notes, power of attorney, advertising web page screenshot (CD-ROM), copy of the list of 46 patent applications, inquiry (investigation) transcripts, field notes and other materials. Xiaomi’s behavior, according to Article 12.3 of the Advertisement Law of China, has constituted illegal advertising behavior, and according to Article 59.1(3) of the same law, Xiaomi is ordered to immediately stop publishing illegal advertisements and pay a fine of RMB30,000.
Ericsson and Huawei Extend Global Patent Cross License Agreement
Ericsson and Huawei have agreed on extending their global patent license agreement between the two companies in January, 2016.
According to Ericsson, the agreement includes a cross license that covers patents relating to both companies’ wireless standard-essential patents (including the GSM, UMTS and LTE cellular standards). Jianxin Ding, Head of Global Intellectual Property, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., says: “This new agreement reflects the two leading companies’ joint view that innovation and IP rights shall be protected, and reasonable compensation for the implementation of IP rights is vital to promoting technology innovation, sharing and standardizing technology, driving and accelerating industry evolution.” Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson, says: “The extension shows our commitment to drive innovation and industry development. In the future, everyone and everything will be connected through the Networked Society and Internet of Things. Our role is to drive this transformation, opening up new ways to innovate, to collaborate, and to empower people, business, and society”.
Sanyi Wins 337 Investigation in US against Manitowoc
On April 20, 2015, president of Sanyi Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.of China (Sanyi ) Xiang Wenbo disclosed on Sina Weibo that, “Sanyi has another victory in protecting its judicial rights in the US! In the patent infringement case filed by Manitowoc against Sanyi requesting a Section 337 investigation into Sanyi crawler cranes and components that infringe on one or more claims of US Patents Nos.7,546,928 (the ‘928 patent) and 7,967,158 (the ‘158 patent) owned by Manitowoc, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a final determination that neither of the two patents were infringed!” This final determination was made on April 16, 2015.
The investigation started 2 years ago. On June 12, 2013, Manitowoc filed a complaint with ITC alleging that Sanyi “unlawfully import into the US, sell for importation, and/or sell within the US after importation certain crawler cranes and components thereof that infringe on one or more claims of US Patents Nos. 7,546,928 (the ‘928 patent) and 7,967,158 (the ‘158 patent) and that were designed and manufactured using Manitowoc Cranes’ misappropriated trade secrets.” On July 11, 2013, ITC officially initiated the Section 337 investigation. On July 11, 2014, the issued the Initial Determination certain accused products infringe claims of the '928 patent, but not of the ‘158 patent. On July 28, 2013, Sanyi objected to this determination, and appealed to ITC.
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