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Patent Disputes Involving Foreign Parties in Mainland China: A Data Perspective

Berkeley-Tsinghua Annual Forum of 2019 - Transnational IP Litigation

October 2019

Nongfan Zhu, International Partner, King & Wood Mallesons

Morris Tu, CEO & Co-Founder of Legal Miner

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Content

Part I - Data Analysis on Patent Infringement Cases

Part II - Data Analysis on Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

Part III - Win Rates and Modifications

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I. Overview

Part I - Data Analysis on Patent Infringement Cases

In this report we will provide a data summary of patent litigations and patent invalidity administrative cases involving foreign parties in mainland China. The foreign parties under analysis in this report are restricted to entities registered abroad, excluding subsidiaries of foreign corporates in mainland China. Our data covers cases of both first instance and second instance.

II. Patent Infringement Cases - Data Presentation

Year Distribution of Patent Infringement Cases Involving Foreign Parties in Mainland China (Including both Judgments and Rulings)

91

128

145

182

257

91

310

402

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

2019

2018

2017Total: 803

Jan.-Jun.

Jul.-Dec.

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Overview of Patent Infringement Cases by Plaintiff Nationality

Top 5 Countries and Areas Involved in the Most Cases

Country/Area Number of Cases Involved Percentage in Total Number of Cases Number of Companies Involved

U.S. 157 19.55% 62

Japan 143 17.81% 40

Germany 98 12.20% 40

Hong Kong 94 11.71% 17

France 67 8.34% 16

II. Patent Infringement Cases - Data Presentation

Part I - Data Analysis on Patent Infringement Cases

Nationality of Plaintiff Court Level Number of Judgment and Ruling Cases

Number of Judgment Cases

Win Rate in Judgment Cases

Mainland ChinaFirst Instance 25 9 88.89%

Second Instance 6 1 0.00%

ForeignFirst Instance 446 148 87.84%

Second Instance 283 100 85.58%

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Part II - Data Analysis on Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

I. Overview of Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

20

53

40

71

73

20

124

113

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

2019

2018

2017Total: 257

Jan.-Jun.

Jul.-Dec.

Year Distribution of Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases Involving Foreign Parties in Mainland China (Including both Judgments and Rulings)

Overview of Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases by Patent Holder Nationality (Judgments Only)

1: Decisions by the PRB (Patent Reexamination Board of PRC) are non-disclosed.2: The validity rate here is calculated as the number of decisions that render the patent valid out of the total number of decisions made by the according authority with respect to the party in question.

Nationality of Patent Holder Decision Level Number of Judgment

Cases Validity Rate2

Mainland ChinaPRB1 ? ?

First Instance 11 0.00%

Second Instance 17 47.06%

ForeignPRB ? ?

First Instance 112 30.36%

Second Instance 73 45.21%

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Top 5 Countries and Areas Involved in the Most Cases

Country/Area Number of Cases Involved Percentage in Total Number of Cases

Number of Companies Involved

U.S. 65 25.29% 38

Japan 58 22.57% 39

Germany 28 10.89% 18

Sweden 23 8.95% 8

France 20 7.78% 12

Part II - Data Analysis on Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

I. Overview of Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

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Part II - Data Analysis on Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

I. Overview of Patent Invalidity Administrative Cases

Nationality of Patent Holder Court Number of Judgment Cases Repeal Rate3

Mainland China

Beijing Intellectual Property Court 11 0.00%

Beijing Higher People’s Court 17 5.88%

Foreign

Beijing Intellectual Property Court 112 20.54%

Beijing Higher People’s Court 73 10.96%

3: The repeal rate here is calculated as the rate that the respective court repeals an earlier decision. In the case of a first trial, i.e. Beijing Intellectual Property Court, a “repeal” refers to rejection of a decision made by the PRB.

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Part III - Win Rates and Modifications

Win Rates in Infringement Cases (First Instance Only) I. Overview

Note that there is no infringement ruling that considers the invalidity of a patent owned by Chinese companies during the calculating period of thisreport.

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