Case Brief

Lanhai Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lanhai") is a manufacturer specializing in tunnel machinery, including rock drilling rigs, anchor-bolt drilling rigs, arch-erecting and anchor-bolt rigs, wet-mix shotcrete manipulators, and tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Its products are widely used in highway, mining, water conservancy, and hydropower tunnel engineering, making it a leading domestic provider of integrated, complete sets of intelligent equipment. The company has successively obtained qualifications and certifications, including High-Tech Enterprise; Specialized, Refined, Differential, and Innovative "Little Giant" Enterprise; National Intellectual Property Advantageous Enterprise; Sichuan Provincial Enterprise Technology Center; and Chengdu Academician (Expert) Innovation Workstation.

One of Lanhai's best-selling arch-erecting rigs was entirely counterfeited by a competitor, resulting in a loss of market share, a decline in orders, and severe commercial damage. Consequently, Lanhai initiated patent protection procedures to curb the infringement and restore its competitive advantage through legal means. Upon accepting the commission, Unitalen formulated an evidence-preservation plan and litigation strategy and subsequently submitted the lawsuit materials regarding the infringement dispute over the selected patent to the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court.

Key Nodes for Patent Protection

Before initiating patent protection, selecting appropriate target patents is a key prerequisite for determining a case's success or failure. Upon accepting the commission, the Unitalen team, in collaboration with the client's technical department, thoroughly reviewed the patent portfolio technically correlated to the accused infringing product. Subsequently, a comprehensive evaluation was conducted across multiple dimensions, including the solution of the accused infringing product, an infringement comparison analysis, the difficulty of gathering infringement evidence, patent stability, as well as the patent's core contribution and significant proportion within the overall technical solution of the infringing product. Based on this thorough assessment, the target patent for protection was ultimately determined.

In response to the risk that the defendant might transfer assets, the Unitalen team promptly initiated property preservation procedures during the litigation, successfully freezing multiple of the defendant's bank accounts. This move not only effectively curbed the further expansion of the infringing activities but also secured the defendant's debt-paying ability in advance, providing a solid guarantee for the eventual enforcement of damages, and achieving comprehensive protection of the client's rights and interests.

During the litigation, the defendant filed two rounds of invalidity requests against the two patents at issue with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). Based on these requests, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court twice ordered the suspension of the litigation proceedings. Notably, the second round of suspension occurred after the first-round invalidation decision had already upheld the validity of the patent rights, the case had resumed, and the court hearing had been completed. In the face of these two rounds of invalidity challenges, the Unitalen team comprehensively and systematically evaluated the patent's stability and the likelihood of establishing infringement and made adaptive amendments to the claims. Ultimately, the two invalidation decisions across the two rounds for both cases ruled that, on the basis of the amended claims, the patent rights at issue shall be maintained as valid.

Following the resumption of the litigation proceedings, the Unitalen team submitted opinions on systematic infringement for the amended claims. Based on these submissions, the court conducted a substantive trial and subsequently ruled that the infringement in both cases was established, ordering the defendant to compensate Lanhai Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. for its economic losses.