—(2019) Supreme People’s Court Intellectual Property Civil Final Judgement No. 804

Appellant Fashion Electrical Appliances MFG. CO., LTD (referred to as Fashion Company)，Foshan Yidou Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Yidou Company) and appellee ZHEJIANG iSMAL HIGH-TECH ELECTRICS CO.,LTD (referred to as iSMAL Company) are involved in the case of dispute over utility model patent infringement, in which the patent number of the utility model patent “Brewing device and lifting structure of its brewing container” is ZL201320602436.9 (referred to as the case involved).

The iSMAL Company held that the actions of Fashion Company and Yidou Company without permission of the patentee to manufacture, sell and offer to sell products within the protection scope of patent rights of the case involved infringed its patent right, thus filing a lawsuit with the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court (referred to as the court of first instance) for requesting a judgment to order Fashion Company and Yidou Company to stop the infringement and to compensate 1.5 million yuan for economic losses and reasonable expenses in safeguarding rights.

The court of first instance believed that the alleged infringing product fell into the protection scope of the patent right of iSMAL Company, and sentenced that Fashion Company stop infringing and compensate iSMAL Company 250,000 yuan, Yidou Company stop the infringement, destroy inventory of infringing products and compensate iSMAL Company 15 thousand yuan.

The Fashion Company and Yidou Company refused to accept the judgment, appealing to the Supreme People’s Court and submitting US1984047A patent documents and translation (hereinafter referred to as 047A patents) as prior art evidence, which intended to prove that the alleged infringing technical solution belongs to prior art, and the alleged infringing behavior does not constitute an infringement of the patent right involved in the case.

The Supreme People's Court ruled to quash the original verdict on November 12, 2020 and rejected the litigation request of iSMAL Company.

【Judge’s comments】

The Supreme People's Court in the second instance held that iSMAL Company had no oppositions on the authenticity of the 047A patent which applied for disclosure on December 11, 1934, earlier than the application date of the patent involved in the case, therefore it can be used as defense evidence for the prior art.

The technical feature of clamp component involved in the claims of the patent right of the case was “one end of the clamp component is fixed to the cover body, and the other end is elastically pressed against the lifting shaft in the radial direction”.

The clamp component of the alleged infringing technical solution is mainly composed of spring and marble, where one end of the spring is against the cover body, and the other end is against the lifting shaft through the marble and the connecting block, the entire structure is located inside the cover body.

The 047A patent specification and Figure 1 explicitly documented the corresponding technical features: the flat elastic piece 29 is provided on the hollow part 25 and has a tiny protrusion 30 suitable for copulating with the groove 28 situated in the main shaft 26, and the hollow part 25 is located on the cover body 5 and its extension part 6.

The spring and marble-type clamp structure of the alleged infringing technical solution, and elastic piece and protuberance-type clamp structure of the prior art are commonly used means that can be directly replaced. Those skilled in the art can choose different elastic elements and their corresponding structures in accordance with their needs, which is a situation without substantial difference.

All the technical features of the alleged infringing technical solutions falling within the scope of patent protection are identical to or have no substantial difference to the corresponding technical features in the 047A patent solution, and the defenses for the prior art of Fashion Company and Yidou Company are established.

From Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People's Court

December 15th, 2021