Guide: How to determine whether or not design patents are similar and how to obtain a high damages compensation?

Introduction:

Panasonic Corporation owns a design patent “facial steamer”, which product, due to its novel, beautiful and stylish appearance, is well received by customers and constantly imitated by many companies. Entrusted by Panasonic Corporation, Linda Liu & Partners filed a lawsuit of design patent infringement to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court against a Chinese company regarding the facial steamer product it produced. The court of first instance fully supported our claims, held that the defendant infringed the patent right of our client, and demanded the defendant to pay our client 3 million yuan as compensation for damages and 200,000 yuan as reasonable expense. At present,  Beijing Higher People's Court affirmed the judgment of first instance.

Highlight of the case:

The accused infringing product was distinguished from the disputed patent in that it was equipped with a handle. The court of first instance supported our claim that said distinguishing feature had no significant impact on the overall visual effect of the product, and held that the defendant infringed the patent right of our client.

In addition, although we were not able to submit evidence to prove the exact amount of infringement profit gained by the defendant, yet based on evidence such as notarized sales data of the accused infringing product on e-commerce platforms, we claimed that the defendant had gained huge profits of more than 3 million yuan by its infringing action, and claimed for another 200,000 yuan as reasonable expense for investigation and prevention of infringement. The court of first instance fully supported our claims.