Recently, our firm won the first instance of an administrative litigation case for invalidation of an invention patent, in which it is ruled that the invention patent should be comp...
Introduction In the chemical field, it is difficult to seek invalidation of a patent claiming to have achieved unexpected technical effect. This case provides a strategy for success...
OPPO Signs Global Patent Cross-licensing Agreement with Nokia
OPPO recently announced the signing of a global patent cross-licensing agreement with Nokia, which covers standard-essential patents of both enterprises in 5G and other cellular communication technologies. The agreement will end all pending litigations between the two enterprises in all jurisdictions. Nokia also made an announcement on the same day, affirming that it had signed a multi-year patent license agreement with OPPO. OPPO will pay Nokia a license fee, without disclosing the specific terms of the agreement or the amount.
Since 2021, there have been ongoing patent disputes between OPPO and Nokia. During this period, Nokia initiated SEP/non-SEP infringement lawsuits against OPPO in Germany, India, Sweden, France, Brazil, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Indonesia, and Russia, requesting an injunction against OPPO, and OPPO filed patent infringement lawsuits in China and Germany as a counterattack. (Jan. 25th, 2024, WeChat Public Account of IP Economy)
The First Unfair Competition Case Involving Data Capture and Resale Concluded
China’s first case of illegal invocation of API server interface to obtain data for trading and resale has been concluded. Recently, the High People's Court of Guangdong Province made a public judgment on the second instance of the dispute case where Weimeng Company sued Jianyixun Company and its Shenzhen branch office for unfair competition. In the judgment, the Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment: Weimeng Company was awarded with the full amount of 20 million yuan damages for economic losses.
Weimeng Company, the operator of the Sina Weibo platform, accused Jianyixun Company of illegally invocating the API (Application Programming Interface) of the Weibo server that transmits data to the user side, capturing a large amount of Weibo background data for storage, and selling it to the public through its iDataAPI website.
Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen found in the first instance that Jianyixun Company constituted unfair competition and ruled it to compensate Weimeng Company for 20 million yuan and the reasonable costs of rights protection enforcement, as well as publish a statement to eliminate the impact. The defendant- Jianyixun Company appealed to the High People’s Court of Guangdong.
According to the High People’s Court of Guangdong, Weimeng Company enjoyed the rights and interests to independently control, legally utilize and obtain economic benefits from the Weibo data that it legally owned. By constantly changing its IP address and Weibo user accounts, Jianyixun Company sent data requests to the weibo server, and fraudulently obtained the invocation authorities of the Weibo server's special data interface for transmitting data to the user side, acquired a large amount of Weibo background data that it had no right to invocate, and directly resold it for profit. Jianyixun company’s acts were against the principles of fairness, integrity and business ethics, disrupted the order of competition in data marketplace, seriously infringed the legitimate rights and interests of Weimeng Company and consumers, and constituted unfair competition as stipulated in Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Thus the above judgment was made. (Jan. 16th, 2024, jiemian.com)
Statistics
CATARC Released Statistical Analysis of China's Automobile Patent Data in 2023
Recently, the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) released “Statistical Analysis of China's Automobile Patent Data in 2023”, in which, among the TOP50 China’s granted automotive invention patents in 2023 by innovation entities, Toyota (1,490) and Honda (1,066) took the first and second position, but showed a downward trend compared with the same period last year.
The number of the granted invention patents of communication technology enterprises such as OPPO, Qualcomm, Baidu, etc. had a significant increase.
In addition, among the TOP50 China’s published automotive invention patent in 2023 by innovation entities, Huawei ranked the first with 4,233 cases and 135.69% year-on-year growth rate. CATL, Tencent, vivo, SERES, CHERY New Energy, and other enterprises also experienced substantial growth. (Jan. 23th, 2024, Sina Technology)
CAICT Released the White Paper on Global Digital Economy (2023)
Recently, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) officially released the White Paper on Global Digital Economy (2023).
The white paper pointed out that from the perspective of industry scale, the global AI industry was surging. The global AI market revenue was expected to reach US$513.2 billion in 2023, a 20.7% increase over the previous year.
From the perspective of enterprise development, as of the third quarter of 2023, there were 29,542 AI enterprises worldwide, and China and the U.S. accounted for nearly half of the global total, with 9,914 in the U.S. (accounting for 34%) and 4,469 in China (accounting for 15%).
From the perspective of patent filing and grant, in the three quarters through 2013 to 2023, the aggregated number of global AI patent applications amounted to 1.29 million, while the accumulative number of AI patent grants surpassed 510,000. Notably, China's AI patent applications took the lead globally by accounting for 64% of the world's total. (Jan. 9th 2024, IFENG News)
Police Cracked Down on 40,000 Cases of IP Infringement and Selling Counterfeit in 2023
Data from the Ministry of Public Security shows that since 2023, public security organizations around the country cracked down on all kinds of infringement and counterfeiting crimes, with 40,000 cases of IP infringement and making and selling counterfeit and inferior goods placed on file and investigated throughout the year.
Public security authorities nationwide, in alignment with the unified deployment of the Ministry of Public Security, cracked down on crimes of trade secret infringement and counterfeiting patents that infringe on the achievements of scientific and technological innovations, and initiated the investigations of over 150 cases related to the technological field. Police, in collaboration with the relevant authorities, organized special campaigns to combat crimes and cracked down on production and sale of counterfeit fire-fighting equipment, gas equipment, electrical products, construction materials and auto parts. Police actively investigated criminal cases involving copyright infringement, including over 1,300 criminal cases related to pirated educational books, films and software, to effectively safeguard the market order. Police cracked down on crimes of IP rights involving enterprises, and protected the legitimate rights and interests of various types of market players, including state-owned and private enterprises, domestic and foreign enterprises, and large, medium and micro enterprises. (Feb. 3rd, 2024, Xinhua News)
