Litens Automotive Parts (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Litens Suzhou”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canada Litens Automotive Group controlled by Magna International Inc., one of the world's largest auto parts manufacturers. Litens Suzhou is specialized in the manufacture of automatic tensioners and shock absorbers for automotive engines, and a world leader in providing engine tensioners and shock absorbers for internationally renowned car manufacturers such as Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes Benz, GM, Ford, and Toyota.
Litens Suzhou filed a civil suit against Gates Unitta Transmission Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan Gates Unitta Asia Co., Limited. which was jointly established by Gates Corporation US and Nitta Corporation Japan, and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., for infringing upon the plaintiff’s timing transmission system. After receiving an unfavorable judgement in the first instance, Litens Suzhou turned to Unitalen for representation in the appeal proceeding.
After 3.5 years of trail, Unitalen received (2015) No. 00172 civil judgment issued by the Jiangsu High Court, which revoked the first instance judgement and ordered the two defendants to jointly compensate Litens Suzhou for economic losses of more than 9 million yuan as well as the reasonable expenses of more than 1.5 million yuan incurred in stopping the infringement.
The case involves complicated technical issues and law application issues, which brought a huge workload to the attorneys and judge. In order to ascertain the facts of the case, the court of the second instance organized 27 cross-examinations, discussions and hearings, and finally formed the second-instance judgment of 121 pages, which provides typical significance of patent infringement case.