Newsletter October

1. Bridgeon Law Firm Ranked in the Top 10 Patent Litigation Team List 2018-2019

Recently, the “2018-2019 China Top Ten IP Litigation Team Lists” was jointly released by the IPHOUSE, Zhichanli and IPRdaily.

Bridgeon Law Firm was awarded as one of “Top 10 Patent Litigation Teams” and one of “Top 10 Elite Patent Administrative Litigation Teams” in 2018-2019.

These lists were evaluated based on over 150,000 selected judgements in 2018. In order to provide an objective ranking, IPHOUSE, Zhichanli and IPRdaily assessed the judgements through big data technology and also through manual checking. The lists ranked the domestic IP law firms in seven different aspects, i.e. IP litigation, elite IP team, trademark, patent, copyright, unfair competition and administrative litigation. These lists were widely recognized and were hugely influential in the IP circle in China. 
Bridgeon Law Firm has specialized in IP area since its inception and made great achievements for its clients. The award is a recognition for our expertise and brand image. With our specialty, we will commit ourselves to providing high-quality and full-spectrum IP counselling for clients.

2.Bridgeon Law Firm Attended the 2019 AIPPI Annual Meeting and 2019 JIPA Seminar

The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) 2019 Annual Meeting was held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, UK during September 15 to 18. Partners of Bridgeon Law Firm, Ms. Youping Ma and Mr. Weiwei Zhang, attended the meeting.

The conference attracted more than 2,400 professionals from 100 countries in the IP circle. The 4-day meeting covered various themes, including IP protection on AI, cross-border patent prosecution in information era, IP damages of non-sales behavior, rationality in patent infringement cases etc.  

On September 13, 2019, Mr. Guoquan YANG, partner of Bridgeon Law Firm, and Mr. Wei SHI attended the seminar of JIPA held in Chiba-shi, Japan. Mr. Guoquan YANG introduced the practice of utility protection and strategies in China and had a warm discussion with Japan IP practitioners. They also visited the headquarter of Sony in Tokyo, and shared insight of AI patent protection in China with Sony inhouse lawyers.

Bridgeon Law Firm is well-experienced in handling overseas patent prosecution. Through active interactions with international IP practitioners, we have a very good understanding about the differences between US, Europe, Japan and China. We can understand the demands of both overseas clients and domestic clients and bridge the gaps between different countries by using their words to explain the different practices when they come into China or go abroad.  

3.Judgement of the 1st Patent Extortion Case

The Shanghai Pudong Court made the judgement of the 1st patent extortion case on Sep 30, 2019 and the two defendants (patent owner) were sentenced to years of prisons and fines. This case was regarded as a normal patent infringement dispute at the very beginning, but it unexpectedly developed into a criminal case. This case attracted wide attention from the public and the IP circle.     

The patentee, Kedou Company, was owned by the defendants and was run in a way similar to speculative NPE. In this case, Kedou signed a simple patent license with Zhangyue Technology in July 2017. After that, it further signed an exclusive patent license with Budao Company which was also owned by the defendants. The exclusive license was signed in September but claimed that it took effective in December 2016. Then, Budao sued Zhangyue for patent infringement by using the same patent, to stop Zhangyue from IPO in the stock market. The Shanghai court found that this act was an extortion.

This case will have significant meaning for guiding patent lawsuit in China. It will help to regulate market behavior. Reasonable patent enforcement and operation should be encouraged and supported, but abuse of a patent right will be punished. This case provides a guidance on how to distinguish between reasonable patent enforcement and illegal criminal acts.