Lawyer Zachary Zhang and lawyer Zhang Wenyi of Beijing Janlea Law Firm were commissioned by an airline company to represent it and won in its patent infringement litigation versus a company in Beijing.

The plaintiff, a company in Beijing, filed the litigation in December 2009 to Beijing No. Intermediate People’s Court, contending that the defendant, an airline company infringed its invention patent right.

The defendant, the airline company, found our firm and hoped that we would protect its rights. In order to have a clear understanding of the facts, the Court conducted onsite investigation for the product involved in infringement. Our lawyers, after analyzing, argued that the investigated product had a couple of technical features less than the technical scheme that the plaintiff’s patent rights were designated to protect. The product did not fall under the protection range of the plaintiff’s patent at all and was not in compliance with the full-coverage principle of patent infringement. Based on this, the agents of our company presented thorough arguments in the trialing process. The People’s Court accepted the opinions of our agents eventually. 

Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court therefore ruled that the product used by the defendant did not infringe the patent right of the plaintiff.

After the plaintiff appealed, Beijing Higher People’s Court affirmed the first-instance ruling.

The lesson of this case: Judging if patent infringement exists is a complicated technical matter. On the basis of mastery in the judging principles of patent infringement, only through thorough comparison and analysis can one come to the correct conclusion.