In December, 2012, Beijing High People’s Court rendered a decision favorable to a leading European company (the “Company” hereinafter) represented by Beijing East IP Ltd., ruling that Patent Re-examination Board (PRB) erred in invalidating a patent owned by the Company.

In this case, PRB declared the contested patent to be invalid due to the lack of inventive step upon the request of an opponent. After reviewing our argument that PRB erroneously interpreted the scope of claims and reached a wrong conclusion based on hindsight reasoning, Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court upheld our position and issued a favorable judgment to the Company. The opponent and PRB then appealed to Beijing High People’s Court (the “High Court” hereinafter). The High Court heard this case on December 17, 2012 and issued the final judgment recently. The High Court reconfirmed our interpretation of the claims and remanded this case back to PRB.

Last year, Beijing East IP Ltd. successfully defended the Company against the same opponent in a re-trial case before the Supreme Court.