On the 21st, Innolux Ningbo received the final decision from the National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC(hereinafter referred to as CNIPA??????????) wherein the two patents (Chinese patents No. ZL201611179077.5 and ZL201720606454.2 and jointly owned by Chongqing HKC Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. and HKC Corporation Limited) were declared invalid.
As such, all five HKC’s Chinese patents asserted in patent infringement litigation pending with the Fifth Intermediate People’s Court in Chongqing (???????????) and against Innolux Ningbo were all invalidated. HKC’s said patent infringement lawsuit thus becomes baseless lawsuits and should be promptly dismissed. As expected, this Chongquing lawsuit has not imposed any financial or operational risks or adverse effects on Innolux.
Chairman & CEO Jim Hung said that this is an important milestone in the cross-strait intellectual rights patent judgment. It is also the best declaration to encourage international companies to invest in the mainland with intellectual property protection.
On February 12, 2018, Innolux filed complaint at the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court and the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court, alleging that Chongqing HKC Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. and Hefei HKC Jinyang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “HKC” ) and its distributors has infringed Innolux’s 17 patents. In order to confuse and misguide the public, HKC then filed five patent infringement suits against Innolux Ningbo and Foshan in Fifth Intermediate People’s Court in Chongqing. However, there are obvious defects in HKC’s patents. These five patents asserted in the Chongquing lawsuit are weak in patentability, especially that four of them are utility model patents that had not been substantially examined. Additionally, two patents, out of five total, were declared invalid by the CNIPA on the spot at the hearing. This is a strong indication of the poor quality of HKC’s intellectual property rights. And to file such frivolous patent infringement lawsuits seems to be a bad faith action to abuse judicial procedure.
CEO Jim Hung addressed that Innolux has obtained thousands of patents in many countries, covering many high-end technologies and high-quality patent portfolios. We urge all international companies to openly and fairly compete under the premise of respecting intellectual property rights. Innolux has a full range of intellectual property capabilities to ensure that customers are protected from intellectual property abuse.
