403 Forbidden

Article 59 of the Patent Law of the People’s Republic of China (“Chinese Patent Law”) provides that: The protection scope of a patent right for invention or utility model shall be determined by the terms of the claims. The description and the appended drawings may be used to interpret the content of the claims.

The extent of protection for an inventioCXVZCXVVCVCVXVCVn patent includes not only the extent determined by the technical features literally recited in the claims, but also the extent determined by the equivalent technical features.

In the recent practice, the famous carmaker Tesla Motors, Inc. filed two civil lawsuits in China in September 2013 before Beijing Third Intermediate Court, against ZHAN Bao Sheng. ZHAN is the registrant of the disputed trademark of the “TESLA TESLA MOTORS and T Design” in China, where Tesla Motors, Inc. has filed disputed cancellations before the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) as well.

The patentee who wants to enforce his patent in China should pay attention to the principle of allocating the burden of proof which is one of the most important factors affecting whether the intended goal could be achieved in patent infringement litigation.

Forum shopping is an important issue in a patent infringement lawsuit. Under the Chinese Civil Procedure Law, a plaintiff in an infringement case shall file the litigation with a court at the place of infringement or at the place where the defendant is domiciled. However, it often happens that the alleged infringing manufacturer or seller is not in the jurisdiction where the plaintiff wishes to bring the litigation.

A common question regarding English commercial signs, such as trademarks, personal names, or trade names, is how to protect their Chinese equivalent. On the one hand, the holder of the English commercial sign failed to select the Chinese equivalent for some reasons, or failed to have it registered as a trademark in a timely matter. On the other hand, the holder may have used the Chinese equivalent together with the English mark in commerce, or have used the Chinese equivalent passively.

When foreign brands enter into the China market they are generally translated into Chinese, either for use by the brand owners, or by Chinese media and Chinese public. According to authorities including the China Supreme Court, some Chinese equivalents for its English trademarks are protected, such as GOOGLE, CANON, LAND ROVER, HARLEY (of Harley-Davidson), MICHELIN, PORTS INTERNATIONAL, GIOGRIO ARMANI, SOTHEBY’S, RITZ CARLTON, and FREDDIE MAC. Others are not protected, such as VIAGRA, SONY ERICSSON, DELL, MICHAEL JORDAN, and RANDOM HOUSE. And still others are protected in one case while not protected in another, such as LAFITE.

In June 2015, the Beijing High Court (second instance court) sustained the decisions of the Beijing First Intermediate Court (first instance court) and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), and held that the opposed mark “FANG DI MEI in Chinese” (FREDDIE MAC in Chinese) constitutes similar to the cited mark “FREDDIE MAC” owned by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) in terms of similar services in Class 36. The key issue of this case is the determination of similarity between Chinese equivalent and English mark.

This is the first case for successful enforcement of biological patent in China, which clarifies a feasible definition of new protein patent, i.e. defining homology, origin (species), and function simultaneously. Furthermore, this case provides directions to judgment of future invalidation and infringement cases of new protein patents.