In a judgment dated April 26, 2020, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court ruled in favor of Netac Technology Co Ltd. against Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc. for patent infringement of CN1088218C. However, damages were only 500,000 RMB (about $70,500 USD) and no injunction was awarded as the patent expired. This contrasts with the recent ruling of 40 million RMB made in favor of Gree. The case # is （2017）京73民初323号 .
Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court OKs Parallel Imports
In a trio of cases dated May 6, 2020, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court allowed the parallel import of lightning surge protectors from Singapore into China. Parallel import is the import of a non-counterfeit product from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Specifically, in cases(2019)粤73民终6944号, (2019)粤73民终6975号, and (2019)粤73民终6976号 the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court held on appeal that parallel importation by Guangdong Shifu Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (广东施富电气实业有限公司) of the genuine surge protectors did not violate Chinese …
Guangdong Higher People’s Court Affirms 40 Million RMB Award on Utility Model Patent
In a decision released April 20, 2020, the Guangdong Higher People’s Court affirmed an award of 40 million RMB (about $5.6 million) including punitive damages to Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, Gree) in case no. （2020）粤执复117号. The defendant, Ningbo Aosheng Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter Aosheng), had appealed from a ruling by the Guangdong Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou that it infringed CN201242223Y for an indoor air conditioner. Several factors stand out about this judgement including the relatively high …
China Releases Draft Amended Copyright Law With Punitive Damages and Digital Rights Management Articles
The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China has recently released Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft Amendment) for comment. Of particular is the availability of punitive damages of up to five times actual damages, an exponential increase in the maximum statutory damages from 500,000 RMB to 5,000,000 RMB (about $708,000 USD), and switching the burden of proof for proving damages.