On the evening of the 9th, Gree Wenchuan official Weibo issued a notice saying that recently, Gree Electric received a legal document issued by the Supreme People's Court on June 18, which required that the infringing Mijia Xiaomi electric fan involved in this case should not be manufactured and sold, and the infringer paid 1.85 million yuan to Gree Electric Appliances.
Gree Wenchuan also said that on December 22, 2022, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court made a first-instance judgment in response to the infringement of the patent rights of Gree Electric Appliances by the Mijia Xiaomi electric fan BPTS01DM sold in Xiaomi's official flagship store, ruling that its behavior has constituted infringement and compensating Gree Electric for economic losses and rights protection costs.
Interestingly, the day after Gree announced that it had won the lawsuit, Xiaomi quickly refuted the rumors. On the morning of the 10th, Xiaomi's spokesperson official Weibo responded to Gree Electric's "winning lawsuit": After investigation, our company has not received any lawsuits related to environmental appliances.
Gree announced that it had won the lawsuit against Xiaomi, but Xiaomi responded, I haven't received a complaint either...... The people who eat melons can't help but wonder, Xiaomi is caught in the "oolong case"?
Subsequently, #小米回应被格力起诉#话题被冲上微博热榜 attracted widespread attention.
At noon on the 10th, Gree Wenchuan posted on Weibo again that the product "Mijia Xiaomi Electric Fan BPTS01DM" sold by the "Xiaomi Official Flagship Store" infringed on the relevant patents of our company, and the entrusting party of the infringing product was "Xiaomi Communication Technology Co., Ltd.", and the manufacturer was "Zhejiang Xingyue Electric Co., Ltd." The manufacturer has changed its name to "Dream Maker (Zhejiang) Technology Co., Ltd.", and the company has paid 1.85 million yuan to our company.
Gree Wenchuan also emphasized that "Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd.", which is 100% controlled by "Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.", holds 8.0439% of the equity of "Dream Maker (Zhejiang) Technology Co., Ltd."
In summary, the alleged infringing was a supplier of Xiaomi, which produced the infringing electric fan in the form of "OEM processing", and the infringing product was sold on e-commerce platforms such as Xiaomi Mall. At the same time, the supplier belongs to the ecological chain enterprise of Xiaomi Group, and Xiaomi's affiliated company indirectly controls the supplier.
Regarding the infringement dispute between Gree &Xiaomi, some netizens believed: "The infringement of a small part of the supplier has nothing to do with consumers, and it has nothing to do with Xiaomi legally, and the supplier should be held responsible." There are also voices saying: "As one of the suppliers of Xiaomi's ecological chain, and Xiaomi holds more than 8% of the shares, the products are sold in Xiaomi's official flagship store, and Xiaomi cannot stay out of the matter." ”
It is worth mentioning that Gree has already reached a settlement with the manufacturer in June, and the amount of compensation has also been determined.
As an old rival, the competition between Xiaomi and Gree is a comprehensive competition around the brand, technology, market and even ecology: Gree once made mobile phone products directly into the hinterland of Xiaomi, and Xiaomi has also intended to seize the market share of Gree's core product "air conditioner" in recent years. Every business action or voice of the other party may affect the nerves of the other party and arouse great concern of public opinion.
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From "war of words" to legal proceedings, the way of competition between well-known enterprises is changing, which shows that patent infringement litigation has become a hurdle that technology enterprises cannot overcome in business operations, and is an important means of enterprise competition and confrontation.
In the fierce market competition, more and more enterprises have begun to gain competitive advantages by improving the quantity and quality of patents. It is hoped that the majority of science and technology enterprises can be based on innovative technology research and development, and do a good job in patent layout to protect innovation achievements as soon as possible, so as to ensure that enterprises can take the initiative in the fierce market competition and easily win the market.
*Source: Weibo and Internet The copyright belongs to the original author