Source:广东君龙律师事务所|Author:Ice Tang|Publish time: 2021-04-28|48 Views
On the “World Intellectual Property Day” on April 26, 2021, the “lithium battery protective chip Integrated Circuit Layout Design Infringement Case” [（2019）最高法知民终490号] , in which the two founding partners at Junlong Law Firm, Mr. Zhu Aijun and Mr. Ding Jianchun jointly represented the plaintiff, Suzhou Saixin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. , was selected as “Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases in Chinese Courts in 2020”. It is a well-known habit of the Supreme People’s Court, since 2009, to announce to the public, on the eve of World Intellectual Property Day every year, the 10 most valuable and influential intellectual property cases handled by Chinese courts at all levels in the previous year for the sake of reference for future examination. There were in total 525,618 intellectual property cases heard in Chinese courts in the past 2020, and our case stood out from the above 520,000.
At the same time, our case was also selected as the Supreme People’s Court “10 Typical Cases of Technical Intellectual Property Rights in 2020”, Guangdong Intellectual Property Protection Association “2020 Typical Cases of Intellectual Property Rights”, and Shenzhen Lawyers Association “Top Ten Intellectual Property Cases in 2020 represented by Shenzhen Lawyer”.
This second-instance case is the first integrated circuit layout design infringement case ever accepted by the Supreme People’s Court, and it is also the only typical case involving infringement of integrated circuit layout designs announced by the Supreme People’s Court so far. This case has guiding significance for standardizing the innovation and development of the chip industry. Zhou Xiang, deputy chief of the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court, said that the judgment in this case is a manifestation of the earnest implementation of the central government’s requirements for protection and incentives for innovation, and is of great significance for protecting the development of the chip industry.
The case lasted for more than 6 years due to the huge workload for both the courts and the lawyers, and complicated technical issues and legal issues involved in the industry. First of all, the legal provisions on the layout design of integrated circuits were rather general, leaving a lot of legal blanks and uncertainty. Second of all, such cases were quite rare in China, so there was few rules or judicial interpretations for us to follow. Third, there are many controversial legal and technical issues that need to be resolved in the process of handling the case, which puts a severe test on us. Junlong’s legal team, guided by the law, continued to work intensely with the client on the technical issues, and collected and reserved evidence of infringement, and timely applied to the court for injunctive relief to stop infringement, safeguarding the legitimate interests of our client.
On April 26, 2021, Mr. Zhu, the leading lawyer of this case, was invited by the Guangdong Intellectual Property Protection Association to participate in the “2020 Intellectual Property Typical Case Report” held in Guangzhou, where he shared the experiences of handling the case, and made a keynote speech on key issues the lawyers need to know when handling patent infringement cases.
