CPA Wins Patent Infringement Case on Behalf of Swiss Client at Shanghai IP Court
China Patent Agent (H.K.) Ltd. (CPA) recently won a patent infringement case tried at Shanghai Intellectual Property Court (SIPC) on behalf of a Swiss client.
In this case, the plaintiff, our client, engaged in the production of plate heat exchangers and was granted the patent in suit on 5 September 2012. The defendant was a mainland Chinese enterprise also engaging in the production of plate heat exchangers. To collect evidence for infringement, the plaintiff made notarial purchases of the accused products, and proved by comparison of technical features that the accused products fell under the scope of protection of the patent in suit. The plaintiff further proved by notorisation of webpages the defendant's offer for sale of the accused products. At trial, the defendant, while admitting that its products fell under the scope of protection of the patent in suit, used prior art as defense against the accused infringement.
In its ruling, SIPC confirmed the defendant's production, sale, and offer for sale of the accused products, and its opinions with respect to the prior art defense was, although the defendant had cited a prior patent and argued that the technical solution thereof and that of the accused product was basically the same, with the sole distinguishing technical feature being common knowledge of the art easily conceived of by a person skilled in the art, the defendant, however, had not submitted valid evidence capable of supporting that the distinguishing technical feature was common knowledge. Moreover, the examination history of the patent in suit showed that the prior patent had been cited by the examiner and that the said distinguishing technical feature was the very reason that led to the patent grant. Hence, the prior art defense of the defendant was untenable.
In terms of damages, the court decided on an amount which covered compensation for the infringement and reasonable expenditure in accordance with circumstances of the case.
