Tianyancha App shows that recently, the first-instance judgments of two invention patent infringement dispute cases involving Oaks Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. and Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. were announced.
According to the judgment released by the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the plaintiff Oaks Company filed a lawsuit on the grounds of infringement of the invention patent right of "compressor", demanding that the defendant Gree Company compensate for economic losses and reasonable rights protection expenses totaling 39.9617 million yuan and 33.32 million yuan respectively.
According to the plaintiff, the patent application was filed on August 11, 2000, and was granted on September 29, 2004, and was subsequently transferred to Oaks.
Photo by reporter Chen Pengli
The defendant, Gree, argued that the patent in question had undergone three transfers of rights, and Oaks had not fulfilled its due burden of proof as to its continuous and complete rights during the period of the alleged infringement. The compressor involved in the case was purchased by Gree Company from Zhuhai Lingda Compressor Co., Ltd. and paid a reasonable consideration, and Gree Company has a legal source and is not liable for compensation.
After the trial, the court held that Oaks, as the patentee of the invention patent involved in the case, had the right to file an infringement lawsuit within the validity period of the patent.
The court also found that Gree was a manufacturer within the meaning of the Patent Law, because it confirmed that the air conditioner of the allegedly infringing product was manufactured and sold by Gree in both patent infringement lawsuits, and did not raise any objection to the source of the compressor in question.
In the end, the courts of the two cases ruled that Gree Electric Appliance Company should compensate Oaks Company for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 33.03 million yuan and 25.46 million yuan respectively.
Gree sued Oaks for infringement of trade secrets, claiming 99 million yuan
It is understood that on July 16, 2023, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court issued an announcement that Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. sued the defendant Oaks Air Conditioning Co., Ltd. and others. According to Tianyan, the plaintiff Gree Electric appealed to the court and ordered Oaks Air Conditioning Co., Ltd., Ningbo Aosheng Trading Co., Ltd., Shang Bin, Liu Juan, Gu Tangtang, Wu Qingzhuang and Huang Jiabai to immediately stop infringing on the plaintiff's trade secrets, and at the same time, ordered Oaks to transfer 8 patent rights to Gree Electric Appliances, permanently delete the electronic data containing the plaintiff's trade secrets, as well as air conditioner products, molds, technical drawings, etc., and claim 99 million yuan.
The two parties have repeatedly argued over patent infringement
It is understood that Gu Tangtang, vice president of Oaks Home Appliances, once worked in the R&D department of Gree. In 2011, when Dong Mingzhu replaced Zhu Jianghong as the new chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, about 50 R&D personnel led by Gu Tangtang were "poached" by Oaks with high salaries. Since then, the patent infringement turmoil between the two parties has never stopped.
In 2015, Gree Electric took Oaks to court, pointing out that Oaks was suspected of infringing 3 utility model patents of Gree Electric, and finally Gree Electric won the lawsuit, and Oaks was sentenced to compensate Gree Electric for economic losses of 2.3 million yuan.
In 2017, Gree Electric took Oaks to court again for infringing the company's patents on eight categories of air-conditioning products. Until May 2020, the patent infringement case that lasted for nearly 3 years was finally settled, and the court awarded Oaks to compensate Gree Electric with 40 million yuan, setting a record for the highest amount of patent claims in the air conditioning industry at that time.
At the end of 2018, Oaks purchased the compressor patent for Toshiba air conditioner, and then countersued Gree Electric for infringement. This patent war was protracted and even reached the Supreme People's Court. In December 2021 and August 2022, the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court and the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court successively made judgments, finding that Gree Electric Appliances constituted infringement, and the cumulative total compensation amount in related cases was nearly 220 million yuan. Both Gree and Oaks were dissatisfied with the verdict and appealed to the Supreme People's Court. On April 23 this year, the Supreme People's Court held a trial on the dispute, which lasted nine hours on the same day, and nearly 60,000 people watched the live broadcast of the trial online. The Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court will announce the verdict in this case at a later date.
What market signals does the patent war send?
Major General Ding, an observer of Sankei and the founder of Nail Technology, said in an interview with a reporter from Securities Daily, "The source of the offensive and defensive battle between Gree and Oaks at the legal level is the fierce competition between the two brands in the market. In particular, through the strategy of price impact and strengthening the online market, Oaks has rapidly increased its market share and squeezed the original head enterprises. The white-hot market competition has gradually evolved into an all-round offensive and defensive battle at the patent level, product level, marketing level, public relations level, legal level, etc., with the ultimate goal of having more competitive advantages than opponents in the market. ”
In addition, Major General Ding believes that the frequent offensive and defensive battles highlight that the entire industry is currently in a state of stock market, "Everyone is more anxious." He believes that in the stage of stock development, enterprises have entered squeezing competition, which will be more severe to test the comprehensive ability of enterprises. If the industry wants to develop benignly and rationally, enterprises must be self-disciplined and need other disciplines under peer supervision, but in the end, both sides should return to the core essential capabilities such as products, technology, services, brands, and manufacturing. The endless legal offensive and defensive battles are also a kind of loss to enterprises.
Dr. Lu Dingliang, a partner at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, said in an interview with Securities Daily that related litigation around patents, trade secrets, and anti-unfair competition is not uncommon. In essence, the dispute between Gree and Oaks is the embodiment and extension of the company's product competition and protection in the legal field.
"Patents and trade secrets provide impetus and guarantee for enterprise innovation and development, and can further encourage enterprises to actively participate in research and development, improve scientific and technological content, and win the market through product competition through product research and development, technology update and iteration, patent application protection, and trade secret protection. Therefore, patents and trade secrets are also crucial to the competitiveness of a company's products. Lu Dingliang further said.
According to the Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court (2022), the number of infringement cases accepted by the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court continued to increase in 2022. Among the 2,956 new second-instance civil cases, 1,583 were invention and utility model patent infringement cases, accounting for 53.5% of the civil substantive cases, an increase of 14.5% over 2021, and 73 technical secret infringement cases, an increase of 2.8% over 2021.
Source: National Business Daily, Comprehensive Securities Daily, Tianyancha App, public information