Fairsky Representing ZTE Succeeds in Patent Invalidation
Entrusted by ZTE Corporation, Fairsky filed requests for invalidation of Chinese invention patents No. ZL98117919.3 and No. ZL200610094672.9 owned by Maxell Corporation, a subsidiary of Hitachi Group (hereinafter referred to as Hitachi Maxell). Patent Reexamination Board recently concluded the cases and declared that both patents shall be completely invalid. This will become an important chip for ZTE in the patent litigations with Hitachi Maxell in the United States.
Since 2016, Hitachi Maxell has filed a series of patent infringement lawsuits against ZTE at the court of Eastern District of Texas. In addition to actively responding to the lawsuits in US, ZTE also seeks to tackle the relevant patents in China. ZTE entrusted Fairsky to request invalidation of the two Chinese family patents of the US patents involved in the lawsuits.
With in-depth understanding of the technical solutions of the two patents at issue and a large amount of researching, the Fairsky team accurately determined that the prior arts alone or in combination, or combined with common knowledge, can destroy the novelty and inventiveness of the two patents at issue, and filed the invalidation petitions accordingly. The Patent Reexamination Board accepted the reasons for invalidation and the prior arts provided, and declared the patent rights shall be completely invalid.
Basic information of the patents involved in the case
Patent 1 involved in the case: parent application
Patent No.: ZL 98117919.3
Title of the patent: Information Recording Medium, Enclosing Casing of Information Recording Medium, and Information Recording Apparatus using the same
Application date: August 07, 1998
Announcement date of grant of patent right: January 07, 2004
Patent 2 involved in the case: divisional application
Patent No.: ZL 200610094672.9
Title of the patent: Camera Recording Equipment and Image Data Recording Method
Application date: August 07, 1998
Announcement date of grant of patent right: March 03, 2010