Case Summary：

Chongqing Shangye Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. received the judgement of the first instance from the Guangzhou IP Court in June 2018 concerning the dispute over the infringement of an invention patent right (ZL201410336696.5) vs Guangzhou Zhongda Furui Medical Technology Co., Ltd., which ordered it to cease infringement immediately and compensate the plaintiff 800,000 yuan for economic losses.

Chongqing Shangye Medical Devices Co., Ltd. therefore entrusted Unitalen to handle the case in August 2018. Our attorneys then filed the request for invalidation of the involved patenta as well as filed the patent invalidation defense and applied for a halt on the infringement litigation of second instance. Unfortunately, the request for the halt was not supported. In November 2018, the Guangdong Higher People's Court of second instance issued the judgement that upheld the original judgment. Guangzhou Zhongda Company also filed the "Application for Enforcement" to the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.

To continue, Unitalen attorneys presented the reasons and envidences to the CNIPA Patent Office as to why the involved patent is lacking inventiveness, and we received the No. 39057 "Invalidation Decision" issued by the CNIPA in February 2019, ruling that all claims of the patent right involved are invalid!

We then submitted the decision as new evidence to the retrial case in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in May 2020 to maintain the "Invalidation Decision", confirming the claims involved are invalid, and ruled to suspend the execution of the original judgment . Meanwhile, the plaintiff, under the pressure of the “Invalidation Decision”, voluntarily withdrew the aforementioned "Application for Enformece" in March 2019. Thus, our client won the final victory in this patent invalidation administrative litigation with all patent infringement liability and huge compensation excempted.

Comments：

Challenging the validity of a patent right is an important countermeasure for defendant in patent infringement lawsuit. If the patent right involved can be invalidated in the first instance, the right holder will be forced to withdraw the lawsuit or the court will rule to reject the lawsuit; if the patent right involved can be invalidated in the second instance, the court of second instance usually revokes the first instance judgment and ruled to reject the lawsuit; even after the second instance, if the patent right involved can be invalidated, there is still chance to turn defeat into victory.