To profoundly and sincerely practice the philosophy of active judiciary in the new era, fully leverage the guiding role of typical cases, motivate and ensure scientific and technological innovation, strengthen intellectual property protection, maintain fair competition in the market, and serve high-level opening to the outside world, top 10 influential cases and 100 typical cases are selected from 15710 tech-related IP and monopoly cases concluded in the five years since the establishment of the Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and hereby now are released.

Attached: Top 10 Influential Cases and 100 Typical Cases in the Five Years Since Establishment of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China

Attached: Top 10 Influential Cases in the Five Years Since Establishment of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China

Attached: 100 Typical Cases in the Five Years Since Establishment of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China

(Source: General Office of the SPC of the PRC)

On February 27, SHEN Changyu, Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), met with the visiting Michael Schwager, Director General of IP Australia. The two offices discussed the latest progress in IP work in their respective countries, conducted in-depth discussions on related topics, and jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation.

(Source: website of the CNIPA)

The World Intellectual Property Organization invites all Member States and stakeholders to join in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2024. The 2024 World Intellectual Property Day campaign theme is IP and the SDGs: Building our common future with innovation and creativity.

World Intellectual Property Day has become a global event, with celebrations taking place in every region. In 2024, we celebrate changemakers worldwide who are driving the innovation and creativity needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and build a better and more sustainable future for everyone. Intellectual Property (IP) is central to addressing our global challenges. IP is a powerful catalyst for growth and development and, as such, has a vital role to play in improving livelihoods and safeguarding our planet. World Intellectual Property Day 2024 is an opportunity to showcase the central role that IP, innovation, and creativity play in achieving the SDGs for the benefit of everyone.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the international community in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, both now and in the future. 17 SDGs underpin the 2030 Agenda. The SDGs are an urgent call to action for all countries to unite in a global partnership to carve pathways to a better and more sustainable future.

To build our shared future and achieve the SDGs, we need to rethink how we live, work, and play. World Intellectual Property Day 2024 is an opportunity to explore how intellectual property encourages and can amplify the innovative and creative solutions crucial to building our shared future.

(Source: WIPO China)

Recently, Beijing Unitalen Law Office, representing a Chinese charging network ecology unicorn company (hereinafter referred to as "the client"), successfully invalidated all claims of the other party's patent right for invention in the patent invalidation announcement procedure. This protected the client's commercial interests, safeguarded its market operation and promotion, and swept away the haze.

Case Brief

In September 2023, Unitalen Law Office accepted a request for invalidation announcement of a patent for invention commissioned by a client. The patent involved is an invention patent under No. ZL202110131805.X entitled "New Energy Parking Space Determination Method and Device." This patent has seven claims in total, including three independent claims. The patent was filed on January 30, 2021, and was granted a patent right on April 22, 2022. The technical solution claimed in the patent relates to methods and devices for matching parking information of new energy vehicles with charging stations and charging parking spaces.

Case Analysis

On September 12, 2023, Unitalen, representing the client, filed a request for invalidation announcement against the patent right involved with the CNIPA, clearly pointing out the reasons and evidence for invalidation announcement of the patent right involved because it does not meet the requirements for being granted a patent right due to lack of an inventive step relative to the prior art.

Upon careful review of the application documents, authorization documents, and examination history documents in the authorization process of the patent involved, the team at Unitalen determined the core inventive point of the patent involved as follows: "A target parking space for the vehicle is determined by acquiring vehicle information, charging demand information, parking space available time period information of all charging station parking spaces in the parking lot, all charging station parking spaces including parking spaces of fixed owners willing to share their parking spaces, available time periods for comprehensive parking spaces and charging time periods of charging demands." As a result, the team at Unitalen determined search strategies for invalidation based on the background of the patent involved, quickly and efficiently carried out search work, and searched for previously disclosed patent literature and relevant common knowledge evidence.

In combination with the analysis of evidence from the prior art, the team at Unitalen believes that the features "obtaining available time period information for all parking spaces, wherein all parking spaces include parking spaces of fixed owners and the charging time period of the charging demand is matched with the parking space available time period when the target parking space is determined" in the technical solution of the independent claim. The parts relating to the matching method in the dependent claims of the patent involved are the difficulties and focus of this invalidation.

In response to the key issues mentioned above, the team at Unitalen actively collected evidence from multiple sources and formulated comprehensive strategies for invalidation. In terms of evidence collection, on the one hand, nine pieces of published literature relating to the patent involved were collected; on the other hand, the team at Unitalen actively sought and used public evidence to fix evidence through various methods such as on-site notarization, webpage time-stamp for evidence collection, and screen recording function of mobile phone Apps for evidence collection, to closely form a complete evidence chain.

In terms of strategies for invalidation, the team at Unitalen proposed that the core technical solution has been disclosed by the closest reference document; the distinguishing feature from the closest reference document is "specific means for convenient sharing and efficiency improvement during shared charging"; the relevant distinguishing feature has been disclosed by other reference documents, and the relevant technical feature includes "utilization of the sharing time period of a charging pile," "time requirement," and "implementation in communication binding using QR codes, mobile phones, etc.", and the like, which are also technologies and situations well-known in the industry; and the team at Unitalen provided different combination methods of relevant reference documents to disclose these distinguishing technical features.

Based on the detailed combination of evidence and full discussion from multiple perspectives, the CNIPA finally adopted the Unitalen team's proposition and deemed that it is easy to envisage the claims relative to the combination of the prior art and common knowledge. Therefore, the CNIPA issued No. 565823 Decision on Examination of Request for Invalidation Announcement on January 12, 2024, declaring the patent right involved entirely invalid for the reason that the patent involved lacks an inventive step.

Conclusion

In this case, it only took five months from the Unitalen team's receipt of the client's commission to the CNIPA's issuance of a decision on invalidation. The team at Unitalen helps the client solve the dispute efficiently and quickly, safeguards its market operation and promotion while protecting its commercial interests, and sweeps away the haze.

Case Brief

Valeo Systemes d'Essuyage in France is the patentee of an invention patent under patent No. 200610160549.2 entitled "Wiper Connector for Motor Vehicle and Corresponding Connection Device." It argues that the acts of manufacturing and sales of wiper products by Xiamen Lukasi Car Accessories Co. Ltd. and others constitute infringement over the patent right involved and requests to order Xiamen Lukasi Car Accessories Co. Ltd. and others to stop the infringement, compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses for rights protection of 6 million yuan. In the first instance procedure, Valeo Systemes d'Essuyage in France filed an application for behavior preservation in the lawsuit, requesting to order Xiamen Lukasi Car Accessories Co. Ltd. and others to stop the infringement immediately. Subsequently, the court in the first instance made a partial judgment ahead of time, determining that Xiamen Lukasi Car Accessories Co. Ltd. and others constituted the infringement and ordered them to stop it, but did not simultaneously handle the relevant application for behavior preservation. Xiamen Lukasi Car Accessories Co. Ltd. and others were dissatisfied and filed an appeal; Valeo Systemes d'Essuyage in France did not file an appeal but still insisted on its application for behavior preservation in the lawsuit. After 40 days of receipt of the case, the SPC held a public court session and pronounced its judgment. Based on correction of the determination of functional features in the first instance judgment, the court pronounced a judgment of rejecting the appeal, upholding the original judgment, and pointed out in the judgment that the relevant application for behavior preservation in the lawsuit can be supported according to the situation of the case, to fill the gap of legal effect where the first instance judgment is temporarily unenforceable due to the appeal.

Typical Significance

This case is the first time that the SPC IP Court has sounded the "first hammer" of the trial after its establishment, and it is the first public display of the court to fulfill the trial function under the appeal trial mechanism for intellectual property cases in the national level. The judgment, in this case, reflects a clear orientation of strengthening intellectual property protection and makes helpful explorations: in the substantive aspect, clarifying the standard for determining functional features to avoid inappropriate limitations on the protection scope of patent rights and ensure that the patentee obtains the right protection scope matching the technical contributions; and in the procedural aspect, advocating for timely and efficient remedy rights through a determination manner of "preliminary judgment + temporary injunction" to protect parties involved from "winning the lawsuit but losing the market."

(Source: General Office of the SPC of the PRC)

Recently, the authoritative international media in the field of intellectual property, the World Trademark Review (WTR), released a list of 2024 WTR 1000 global leading firms in the field of trademark. Unitalen, with its outstanding strength and good reputation, was selected again as the "Gold Medal Firm" in the field of trademark application and strategy and the "Silver Medal Firm" in the field of trademark protection and litigation in China. Meanwhile, Unitalen's partners, ZHAO Lei, attorney at law, HUANG Ying, attorney at law, and QIN Lili, attorney at law, were on the Outstanding Individual List with their superb professional abilities and excellent industry reputation.

WTR gave Unitalen very high appraisals: "The team at Unitalen works closely with clients to obtain formidable trademark protection in the most business-focused, cost-effective way. Its branches throughout the country and a joined-up squad of more than 600 IP professionals can provide clients with a high-standard IP service in all fields. The highly experienced and well-trained professionals are adept in trademark litigation/non-litigation fields in a wide range of sectors.

ZHAO Lei Unitalen Senior Partner, Attorney at Law, Trademark Attorney

Practices: intellectual property litigation and non-litigation legal services on trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade secret, and the like

HUANG Ying Unitalen Senior Partner, Attorney at Law, Trademark Attorney

Practices: determination and authorization of trademark rights, trademark infringement, unfair competition, copyright protection, customs protection, domain name dispute, and the like

QIN Lili Unitalen Partner, Attorney at Law

Practices: determination and authorization of trademark rights, protection of trademark right, anti-counterfeiting, unfair competition, copyright, and domain name dispute