Posted on December 15, 2016

On December 25, 2015, CRRC Qiqihar Locomotive Co., Ltd, Dalian Container Company under CRRC Qiqihar Transportation Equipment Co., Ltd, and Qinzhou North Gulf Logistics Co., Ltd. (jointly the “Defendants”) received from Sichuan Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court the Notice of Responding to Action concerning the lawsuit filed by Tianjin Zhaohua Logistics Co. Ltd. (the plaintiff) for infringement of utility model patent. 

Entrusted by all three defendants, Unitalen took up the case and first filed a jurisdiction opposition to Chengdu Intermediate Court on the ground that although the actual user of the alleged infringing goods locates in Sichuan, Sichuan shall not be the venue of jurisdiction since the plaintiff has given up the right to sue the actual user. On April 22, 2016, Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court issued an adjudication confirming that the court has no jurisdiction over the case, as none of the three defendants’ residencies are in Sichuan province; that the plaintiff could neither prove Sichuan to be the venue of production, sales or use of the alleged infringement product, nor to be the venue where infringement consequence had taken place. Accordingly, the court decided to transfer the case to Guangxi Naning Municipal Intermediate People’s Court, the venue of the third defendant’s residence.

As the second step, Unitalen started invalidation proceedings against all three utility model patents cited by the plaintiff. After review, the Patent Reexamination Board of SIPO announced total invalidation of two of the cited utility model patents, and partial invalidation of the third. Subject to the partial invalidation, the protection scope of the third utility model patents has become completely different from the technical solution of the alleged infringed products.  

As a result, the plaintiff had no choice but withdrawn its litigation requests against all three defendants.