On April 25th 2011, the Supreme People’s Court held a press conference in Suzhou, Jiangsu and announced the top 10 legal protection cases of intellectual property in Chinese courts and 50 example cases of 2010. The cases announced this time were selected from more than 140 cases submitted from every High People’s Courts to the Supreme People’s Court and the more than 300 cases concluded in the intellectual property court of the Supreme People’s Court in 2010. All of the cases were meaningful paradigms and had substantial social impacts. They greatly embodied the legal principle of equally protecting the rights of the involved parties under the laws, and further confirmed the judging rules for a series of unconventional, complex, and confounding cases. Among the exemplified cases, the Shanghai Expo French Pavilion’s “Overhead 3-D Structure” invention patent case, represented by lawyer Zhang Wenyi of our company, topped the list of 7 intellectual property civil cases. 

[Case Recap] The plaintiff, Wang Qun, filed a lawsuit to Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court on the grounds that the defendants, Shanghai Expo French Pavilion (French Pavilion for reference) and China Construction Eighth Engineering Division (Eighth Division for reference), infringed the invention patent right of his “Overhead 3-D Structure” by constructing the building of the French Pavilion, and appealed for a ruling that would stop the infringement actions, order compensation for his losses and eliminate related impact. The Court, after the first-instance trial, held that the rooms within the French Pavilion building were built on the surface of slopes but were not extended to the surrounding space of the slopes. This design was neither the same nor the equivalent to the technical characteristic recorded in the invention patent specification term 1 of the plaintiff, which was that “the space and surface surrounding supporting structure were installed with several housing units”. According to the specification, the beneficial effect of this invention was the expansion of structural area on unit area of land set for construction, which would improve the intersection and comfort for residence. The technical means of achieving such effect was, exactly, that “the space and surface surrounding supporting structure were installed with several housing units”. However, the French Pavilion building had rooms only on the slope, d its design was not sufficient to fulfill the function and effect of expanding structural area specified in the patent documents of the plaintiff. Therefore, the two defendants’ actions of using the French Pavilion building did not constitute infringement on the patent right of the plaintiff. The Court thereby refused the claims of the plaintiff. After the first-instance trial, Wang Qun appealed for retrial. Shanghai High People’s Court affirmed the first-instance decision of court on its interpretation of infringement, and hence refused the appeal and affirmed the original ruling. 

[Impact as a Paradigm] As an o-related patent infringement case during the Shanghai Expo event, this case received popular attention from the society. The court decided that the French Pavilion did not commit infringement on patent right, after examining the technical features that were accused onsite of the Pavilion, and interpreting accurately the terms of patent right according to the laws. The case well demonstrated the legal principle of equally protecting the rights of the involved parties under the laws, protected the order and functioning of the Shanghai Expo, and produced positive social impact.