Case Brief

Headquartered in Holzminden, Germany, Symrise is one of the world's leading companies in flavors and fragrances, food and cosmetic ingredients, and nutritional supplements.

Symrise's Chinese invention patent (hereinafter referred to as "the patent involved") entitled "Antimicrobial Compositions" faced a second invalidation challenge initiated by a petitioner for invalidation. The patent involved had previously withstood an invalidation challenge, and its European counterpart was also challenged by opposition proceedings. In the first invalidation case in China, the Unitalen team provided effective response strategies and successfully represented Symrise in maintaining validity of the Chinese patent.

In the second invalidation challenge, the petitioner for invalidation further referred to multiple documents cited in the opposition proceedings of the European counterpart of the patent involved, and submitted the invalidation grounds including that the patent involved fails to abide by the principle of good faith, the disclosure of the description is insufficient, the claims are not supported by the description and lack an inventive step, and the like.

Symrise continued to entrust Unitalen as its agent to respond to this invalidation request. In the oral hearing, the Unitalen team made full preparations and presented opinions: during the evidence examination process, pointing out issues with the evidence qualification and probative force of the evidence submitted by the petitioner for invalidation; regarding the principle of good faith, pointing out the petitioner's issues with burden of proof and confusion of legal concepts; accurately pointing out that multiple invalidation grounds and evidence from the petitioner violated the "res judicata" principle, etc. Based on the oral hearing situation, the Unitalen team submitted post-hearing agent opinions and related reference materials to further elaborate its views.

Case outcomes

Finally, the petitioner for invalidation withdrew the request for invalidation without any amendment made to the claims of the patent involved. The validity of the patent involved was maintained. Once again, the Unitalen team assisted the client in successfully defending its patent rights.

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