A few days ago, Chuangyuan Institute received a final judgment of the Supreme People's court, which rejected the plaintiff's appeal and maintained the original decision that all patent rights were invalid. So far, Chuangyuan has been acting as an agent for Suzhou enterprises for 4 years and 2 months, and finally invalidated all the core invention patents of a famous multinational company.
High efficiency heat exchange tube is the core component of central air conditioning equipment, which has been monopolized by German willand company for a long time. With a history of more than 180 years, veland company is the world's leading manufacturer of copper, semi-finished copper products and special copper alloy products. Its main products include copper strip, copper plate, copper tube, copper rod, copper wire, sliding bearing, finned tube, heat exchanger, etc. Willand group is headquartered in Ulm, Germany, and has a number of manufacturing enterprises, cutting centers and trading subsidiaries in many European countries, as well as in the United States, South Africa, Singapore and China.
After long-term research and development, a Suzhou enterprise has finally made a breakthrough in the material and technology of high-efficiency heat exchange tube, entered the small batch trial stage, and obtained the recognition of international famous air conditioning manufacturers. At this time, the Suzhou enterprise received the lawyer's warning letter from veland company, believing that the Suzhou enterprise infringed the invention patent of veland company, and required the Suzhou enterprise to stop production immediately, otherwise it would bear all the consequences arising therefrom.
Because the Suzhou enterprise invested a lot in R & D of this product and had a broad market prospect, it did not want to give up, so it entrusted Chuangyuan Institute to search and analyze the invention patents of veland company. As early as 2001, veland applied for a German patent for the high efficiency heat exchange tube and processing technology. In 2002, it entered China through the Paris Convention with international priority. In June 2006, it was granted a patent for invention. Based on this patent technology, veland has monopolized the domestic and foreign markets of the product for more than ten years, so it is very difficult to void the patent Big. After painstaking and detailed patent search and analysis, Chuangyuan Institute finally found the defects of the invention patent, and retrieved the reference documents affecting the inventiveness of the invention patent. Therefore, in July 2016, Chuangyuan Institute filed a patent invalidation request with the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office. After both sides' back and forth defense and oral trial, the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office made a patent invalidation decision in February 2017, declaring all the invention patents of veland company invalid, and Chuangyuan won the first battle as an agent for Suzhou enterprises.
However, after receiving the patent invalidation decision, veland company thought that the determination of the reexamination board was wrong, so it filed an administrative lawsuit with Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Beijing Intellectual Property Court held a trial online in March 2020. In April, it made a judgment of first instance, rejected willand company's claim, maintained the decision that all patent rights were invalid, and Chuangyuan won another battle on behalf of Suzhou enterprises.
However, after receiving the patent invalidation decision, veland company thought that the determination of the reexamination board was wrong, so it filed an administrative lawsuit with Beijing Intellectual Property Court. Beijing Intellectual Property Court held a trial online in March 2020. In April, it made a judgment of first instance, rejected willand company's claim, maintained the decision that all patent rights were invalid, and Chuangyuan won another battle on behalf of Suzhou enterprises.
Since then, veland company still refused to accept and appealed to the Supreme People's court. After hearing, the intellectual property division of the Supreme People's court finally made a final decision in September 2020, rejecting veland company's appeal and maintaining the decision that all patents were invalid.
So far, a patent invalidation dispute after 4 years and 2 months ended with the result that Chuangyuan won the lawsuit on behalf of Suzhou enterprises and the core invention patents of veland company were all invalid. It not only cleared the huge obstacles for the development of domestic high efficiency heat exchange tube industry, but also completely broke the long-term monopoly of international industry giants on the product.
Invalidation of patent right refers to the system that any unit or individual who considers that the grant of the patent right is not in conformity with the provisions of the patent law can request the Patent Reexamination Board to declare the patent right invalid from the date when the State Intellectual Property Office announces the grant of the patent right. The establishment of the system of invalidation of patent right is to correct the wrong decision to grant the patent right to the invention creation that does not meet the requirements of the patent law, and to maintain the fairness of the grant of patent right.
In practice, patent invalidation procedure is often used by the patentee's competitors to counteract patent infringement accusations. When a patent infringement lawsuit occurs, the defendant often turns to the State Intellectual Property Office to request the invalidation of the patent right, and the accusation of patent infringement is thoroughly dismissed. For the specific technology in the industry, the patent invalidation procedure will also be initiated if the industry thinks that the patent right has an improper monopoly.