Xi’an Qinbang Telecommunication Material Co.,Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Qinbang”) is the patentee of Chinese Invention Patent No. ZL01106788.8 titled “Method for Manufacturing Smooth Metal-shield Composite Belt.” Qinbang brought a patent infringement lawsuit to the Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court against three defendants including Wuxi Longsheng Cable Material Factory (hereinafter referred to as “Longsheng Factory”) and other two entities, claiming monetary damages and injunctions.

Claim interpretation is the key to determine the scope of protection of claims. The meaning of the claims can be determined based on internal and external evidence using a variety of interpretation methods, wherein the methods of interpretation can verify each other, eliminating contradictory, uncertain or ambiguous conclusions in order to obtain reasonable and accurate protection scope of the claims.

The judge held in this case that, if, by looking into the nature and degree of the typing mistakes, the person skilled in the art can naturally identify the typing mistakes and appreciate the corrected meaning of the typing mistakes, the typing mistakes shall be interpreted in a corrected manner. Consequently, negative effect of the typing mistakes on validity of valuable patents can be reduced, especially in the current circumstance where there exists no post-grant correction procedure for correcting typos and other clerk errors.

The judge proposed an important principle for claim construction in this case, holding that the claim construction should comply with the purpose of invention described in the detailed description of the patent application.

With China’s rapid economic developments, the relevance of similar goods and services changes with the method of commercial trading, consumption habit, and consumer psychology. However, the Classification of Similar Goods and Services may not include all the goods and services, and there are often contradictions when determine whether goods and services are similar or not. There is a new trend that the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO), the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), and the courts begin to grant cross-class protection by deeming goods and services similar.

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Avago”), successfully obtained registration for its core trademark (A Logo) (Registration No. 5226289, red color designated) in China in January 2010.
The application for registration of the A Logo was filed in the name of Argos Acquisition Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Argos”) in 2006 (the A Logo was later assigned to Avago in 2009). In 2008, the A Logo was rejected by the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) on the ground that it shall be deemed similar to the prior registered trademark (International Registration No. 789052) in terms of similar goods. Avago filed a rejection appeal before the TRAB.

Original Equipment Manufacturer, commonly known as “OEM,” is and will continue to be a huge business in China. Whether OEM constitutes trademark infringement is of great practical significance to foreign companies whose manufacturing bases are in China, and the issue has always been the subject of hot debates. In OEM business, a local Chinese company manufactures the products on behalf of a foreign brand owner with the foreign brand owner’s trademark, but the products are solely for export and not sold in China.

In April 2014, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) announced the list for China Courts 2013 Top 10 Innovative IP Cases. These Top 10 Innovative IP Cases were selected from over one hundred thousand (100,000) decisions of nationwide courts in China rendered in 2013, which have significant and innovative contribution to application of the laws and regulations.

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. In one of the civil lawsuits, Tesla Motors, Inc.

Since the implementation of the Chinese Trademark Law 2001, the courts (the Beijing First Intermediate Court as the first instance court and the Beijing High Court as the second instance court) have been granted the final adjudication power for administrative cases involving the authorization and confirmation of trademark rights (hereinafter referred to as “Trademark Administrative Cases”), where interested parties sued the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) to court in connection with its administrative decisions in trademark rejection review, trademark dispute, and trademark cancellation review.