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Zhong Lun Helps Invalidate Disputed Patent in the First Online Car-hailing Patent Lawsuit
Zhong Lun Helps Invalidate Disputed Patent in the First Online Car-hailing Patent Lawsuit
Near the end of 2017, the first patent infringement lawsuit regarding online car-hailing service was brought against Beijing Xiaoju Technology Co, Ltd. before the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court in China (“Infringement Case"). Zhong Lun Law Firm defended Beijing Xiaoju, and in the meantime represented another entity in a patent invalidation proceeding against the plaintiff’s online car-hailing patent at issue in the Infringement Case (“Disputed Patent"). During the invalidation proceeding, Zhong Lun firmly grasped the technical essence, and emphasized the essential commonality between the Disputed Patent and the prior art as well as the obviousness of the Disputed Patent. In the end, the Patent Reexamination Board (“PRB") made an invalidation decision that all the claims were invalid due to the lack of inventiveness, and the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court dismissed the Infringement Case because the claims of the Disputed Patent were all invalidated.
The claims in the Disputed Patent are directed to an online car-hailing application typically integrating hardware, software and user information, involving complicated internet technology and underlying legal issues. Therefore, the handling of the Infringement Case and the paralleling patent invalidation case provides exemplary significance for other similar patent disputes in the internet industry. In the invalidation proceeding, the inquiries of PRB reflected an in-depth understanding of the technical essence of internet-related patents. The invalidation decision issued by PRB confirmed the invalidity opinions of Zhong Lun highlighting the technical essence, thereby establishing a typical reference framework for focusing more on the technical essence in assessing the inventive step of the internet-related patents.
The legal team from Zhong Lun was led by Mr. Shi Bisheng, Partner of Zhong Lun, and team members include Liu Zhongtao and Wu Runzhi, Associates of Zhong Lun.