In December, 2016, Shanghai IP Court rendered a civil judgement regarding the patent infringement suit filed by Suzhou Antiwear Group (“Antiwear”) against Unitalen client, Shanghai SKH Valve Group (“SKH”). The court dismissed all the plaintiff's claims and ordered the plaintiff bear all the court fees.
The case involved disc valve products commonly used in coal chemical industry. The plaintiff initiated the patent infringement suit based on its "dual-valve integrated disc valve" patent, trying to expel SKH out of competition, and requested a compensation as high as 13 million yuan.
The proceeding lasted over 2 years, accompanied by the invalidation procedure against the patent at issue. A series of complex legal issues, such as the holistic interpretation of patent claims, the principle of equivalence and the principle of donation, as well as the applicability of determination related to invalidation in the infringement litigation, were discussed during this case, which provides significant guidance to the determination of the protection scope of a claim for future cases.
By winning this case, Unitalen helps the client maintain its competitiveness in their core business.