Release date: 2014-09-01
The two leading medical device companies in Shenzhen, which have a lot of connections, have been fighting intellectual property since 2011. Recently, a series of intellectual property cases between Shenzhen Mindray Biomedical Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Mindray) and Shenzhen Libang Precision Instrument Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Libang Instruments) have made significant progress in the Shenzhen Intermediate People. In the five judgments made by the court and the Guangdong Higher People's Court respectively, Mindray Bio has won the victory, and the total amount of compensation has reached more than 42 million yuan. Under the background that all sectors of the society generally believe that domestic intellectual property cases are “low compensationâ€, Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court made 20 million yuan, 15 million yuan and 6.28 million yuan in three cases between the two companies. The yuan's judgment is especially interesting.
This is the same root
Back to top, Mindray Bio and Libang Instruments have deep roots. Both companies are born out of Shenzhen Anke High-Tech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shenzhen Anke), and Shenzhen Anke is known as the “Huangpu Military Academy†in the medical device industry. ", not only created the domestic medical device industry, but also cultivated a large number of talents in this field. Later, Xu Hang and Zhang Hao, the old colleagues of the company, left Shenzhen Anke successively, and each embarked on the road of entrepreneurship, and established Mindray Bio and Libang Instruments respectively.
Today, Mindray Bio has developed into a comprehensive medical device enterprise integrating R&D, manufacturing and sales. In 2013, its global sales exceeded RMB 7.3 billion, and its products are sold to more than 190 countries and regions. It is a well-deserved medical device industry in China. Leader of a group. Especially in the field of monitors and color ultrasound instruments, breaking through the technical blockade of foreign companies, creating more than 20 "China's first". Among them, the domestic market share of monitor series products surpassed the international giants such as General Electric and Philips, ranking first in 11 consecutive years. In September 2006, Mindray Biotech was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Mindray's strength can be reflected to a certain extent from its patent application. According to Li Xiaofei, manager of Mindray's intellectual property department, as of the end of July 2014, Mindray has 1022 Chinese patents, of which invention patents account for a considerable proportion. There are 211 international patents granted; in addition, nearly 700 patent applications are under review.
Libang Instrument is another influential medical device company in China. The ECG parameter meter produced by the company is at the domestic leading level. Some products have the strength to compete with the world's top brands and have a high cost performance advantage. Libang Instruments was listed on the domestic GEM in 2011. According to the financial report, Libang Instruments' operating income in 2013 exceeded 450 million yuan.
It is understood that the two sides are not only the same teacher, but for a long period of time, they are still good partners. According to the prospectus of Libang Instruments, Mindray has been one of its major customers for many years. During the cooperation between the two companies, the two companies performed well in their respective areas of expertise.
However, this kind of friendliness and tacit understanding came to an abrupt end in April 2011.
Litigation
In April 2011, Mindray filed a total of 24 lawsuits against the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on the grounds of infringement of patent rights and infringement of trade secrets, alleging that various types of monitors and ultrasonic imaging equipment produced by Libang Instruments were infringed. The initial litigation claim amounted to 25 million yuan. After that, the total amount of compensation was over 100 million yuan. Among them, the claim for infringement of patent rights was more than 65 million yuan, and the claim for infringement of commercial secrets was more than 41 million yuan.
At the time of the online purchase of Libang Instruments, Mindray’s lawsuit was also considered to prevent Libang’s listing financing. However, the actual controller of Libang Instrument made a promise "If the infringement lawsuit finally loses, and therefore needs to pay any infringement compensation, related litigation costs, or the loss of production and operation of the company due to this lawsuit, the actual controller of the company will jointly After taking over the company's infringement compensation, case expenses and production and operation losses caused by this lawsuit, Libang Instrument was finally successfully listed on the GEM.
The partners who have a deep relationship and have a good relationship have suddenly resorted to the courts. In fact, there is still competition in the market. It is understood that Libang Instrument continued to expand its product field in the past, which had an impact on the inherent market of Mindray Biotechnology. However, in this process, it failed to do a good job of early warning and evasion of intellectual property rights, thus laying a hidden danger for the subsequent alleged infringement. According to Mindray's related people, "the infringement is too obvious. Some of the software source code used in the instrument is exactly the same, and even the errors are copied directly."
Among them, in the patent infringement lawsuit filed with the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, Mindray believes that the eight multi-parameter monitoring products and four ultrasonic products of Libang Instruments are suspected of infringing on “a portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus†(patent number ZL20071012461. 7) Patent rights; In the case of infringement of trade secrets, Mindray believes that the technical information, PCB diagrams and circuit diagrams of the software used in some products of Libang Instruments are infringing, even BUG (error or loophole) is the same. Several core technicians of State Instruments used to work at Mindray Biotech, and Libang Instruments used it in cases where it was known that the technical secrets disclosed by these technicians belonged to Mindray BioTrade Secrets.
In May 2012, Libang Instrument, which had been deeply involved in patent infringement and trade secret disputes, suddenly took the initiative to file a lawsuit against the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, accusing Mindray of illegal acts of unfair competition suspected of smashing commercial smashes and requesting the court to order the other party. Immediately stop unfair competition, eliminate the impact and compensate for the loss of 50 million yuan.
The result is one-sided
Later, this series of lawsuits between the two sides merged into more than 20 adjustments, including 3 cases of Mindray Biological v. Libang Instruments infringement of patent rights and 1 case of infringement of trade secrets. Libang Instruments v. Mindray Biocommerce destroyed There are 1 cases of legitimate competition. At present, these five cases have successively produced results, and Mindray has won all the cases.
In the case of the invention of the “Electronic Non-invasive Blood Pressure Measurement Device†by 7 products, such as Mindray Biotech Instruments M80, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court made a first-instance judgment after the trial, and identified the seven multi-parameter monitoring products produced and sold by Libang Instruments. The instrument infringed the patent right of Mindray Bio invention, and sentenced Libang Instrument to immediately stop the infringement and compensate Mindray's bio-economic loss of 15 million yuan.
In the case of Mindray Biotech's infringement of trade secrets, Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court found that Libang Instruments illegally acquired Mindray's "electrocardiogram algorithm" technical secret and illegally used it on its multi-parameter monitor products. Infringement. In the first instance, Libang Instruments immediately stopped the infringement and compensated Mindray’s bio-economic loss of 20 million yuan.
In the patent case of Mindray Biological v. Libang Instrument's three ultrasonic diagnostic instruments infringing on its “a portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatusâ€, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court heard that the infringement of Libang Instrument was established and it was necessary to immediately stop the infringement and compensate Mindray. The bio-economic loss was 6.28 million yuan.
In another case filed by the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province regarding the patent infringement of “a portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus†by Mindray Biotech Instruments, the Guangdong High Court made a judgment in the first instance, that is, Libang Instruments constituted an infringement. Immediately stop the infringement and compensate Mindray’s bioeconomic loss of 1 million yuan.
Prior to this, Libang Instruments v. Mindray Biotech smashed the unfair competition case and passed the judgment of the Guangdong Higher People's Court in the second instance. It also maintained the first-instance judgment of the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. That is, Mindray's related words and deeds did not constitute commercial slander and no damage. Libang’s business reputation was rejected by Libang’s lawsuit.
In addition, during the proceedings of the two parties, Libang Instruments also filed a request for invalidation of the relevant patent rights of Mindray Biotech. Some cases also experienced administrative litigation, and ultimately it was effective to maintain the patent rights of Mindray Bio.
In a reporter interview, Mindray’s biologists said that after several years of litigation, Libang Instruments has taken some measures to circumvent infringement of its products, but this has also had a great impact on their performance. “A medical device can take at least two years from R&D to market. Under the pressure of our lawsuit, some products need to be developed and updated, which requires a process, a long time, and the performance of its company. The impact will gradually emerge." Mindray said the person.
The financial report of Libang Instrument shows that the net profit in 2011, 2012 and 2013 was 59.272 million yuan, 55.195 million yuan, and 32.702 million yuan respectively, down 10.22%, 6.74% and 37.13% respectively. The relevant person in charge of the company said in an interview that the first-instance judgment in the above case will be appealed and the final judgment that the court has already made will be actively implemented. The products currently produced and sold by the company do not use the patents involved in the above cases, so the judgment results of these cases will not have much impact on the company.
Mindray’s person also said: “The research and development of the medical device industry is multidisciplinary and multi-disciplinary, so it requires a lot of manpower, material resources, financial resources, and time investment. At present, China’s medical device industry is still far behind the developed countries. Therefore, in this industry, what we should do is to catch up and not to infringe. I hope that through such cases, we can promote a good atmosphere of independent research and development in the industry."
Source: China Intellectual Property News
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