Behind Gree Electric and Oaks Litigation: Related patent technology is easy to imitate and cost low in cost

Reporter Jia Li

The new trend of a litigation war allowed the two home appliance giants -Gree Electric and Oaks to stand under the spotlight again.

Recently, Oaks submitted an application for "voluntary withdrawal of prosecution" to the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court of Jiangxi Province and was approved by the court. For nearly three years, the total amount of related infringement litigation bids reached 80 million yuan Oaks prosecuted Gree Electric's "compressor patent" infringement case.

On July 13, the relevant person in charge of Gree Electric said in an interview with the Securities Daily reporter: "Oaks withdraws the lawsuit in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province (hereinafter referred to as 'Nanchang Middle Court') entrusting a third -party judicial appraisal and issuing an appraisal The autonomous behavior after the book is not coordinated with (Gree Electric). "

Oaks said that the incident needs to be understood and replied.

Why do you take the initiative to withdraw the lawsuit after many confrontation?

The grievances between the two sides are dating back to 2018. On December 4 of that year, Oaks purchased a compressor patent from Toshiba. On January 25, 2019, Oaks sued Gree Electric in Ningbo Intermediate Court on the grounds of infringement of invention patents, and once again sued Gree Electric's infringement in Nanchang Intermediate Court on October 14 of the same year. Essence

On December 5, 2021, the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court sentenced Gree Electric to infringement and the amount of claim was as high as 166 million yuan. That month, Gree Electric appealed to the Supreme People's Court on the case. Insiders from Gree Electric told reporters: "The company is still waiting for the judgment result."

The ending of Oaks's "quietly" withdrawal in Nanchang Central Court came out. According to two civil rulings issued by the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court in Jiangxi Province, Oaks allowed Oaks to revoke the infringement lawsuit against Gree Electric and Jiangxi Suning Tesco. The amount of two infringement litigation is 80 million yuan. Oaks applied to the court to withdraw the lawsuit on June 24. Although the lawsuit has been withdrawn, Oaks still bear the acceptance fee of 120,900 yuan for this.

It is understood that this is the fourth time that Oaks has revoked a lawsuit against Gree Electric for the fourth time. The reason for the prosecution involved product and patent infringement, and most of the patents involved were announced by the State Intellectual Property Office.

Dong Mingzhu, chairman and president of Gree Electric, has repeatedly accused Oaks of plagiarizing Gree patent. In addition, in June 2019, Gree Electric has publicly reported that some models of air -conditioning products produced by Oaks have a sensation of energy efficiency and false publicity. Since then, the legal litigation cases of the two companies have continued to occur.

Tianyancha APP shows that as of now, Oaks has been sentenced to compensation for about 50 million yuan in compensation, and Gree Electric has been sentenced to approximately 166 million yuan in compensation for patent infringement for patent infringement, which has also been regarded as Oaks' "counterattack" by the industry.

This time, Oaks's suddenly "quietly" withdrawal still surprised many people in the industry. Regarding the reason for Oaks to withdraw the lawsuit, Wang Zhu, a patent lawyer of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, believes that some patents involved in the case have been determined by the expert demonstration of the Chinese Refrigeration Society as invalid. Oaks may judge the losses from evidence and other aspects, so they withdraw the lawsuit. In addition, patent litigation has problems such as difficulty obtaining evidence, long cycles, and high costs. Other litigations between Oaks and Gree Electric are still undergoing other cases. Oaks can avoid continuous energy and resource consumption.

Why did the litigation war come up one after another?

The dispute between Gree Electric and Oaks is not an example in the home appliance industry. Gree Electric and Midea Group have also repeatedly faced the court. According to sorting out, since 2008, more than 10 mutual complaints initiated around the technical patent and trademarks, focusing on intellectual property infringement, and accumulated claims of over 100 million yuan. In this regard, Gree Electric has also confirmed. Guo Zhenpeng, chief intellectual property adviser to Midea Group, said that in the past ten years, the home appliance industry has more than 300 patent lawsuits in China. Recently, the Hisense video complaint TCL business slander case also ushered in the Supreme People's Court's final hammer ruling.

In recent years, the patent litigation of the home appliance industry has caused the high incidence. Wang Zhu believes that there are mainly the following reasons: most of the patent protection categories in the field of home appliances involve appearance, structure and other technologies, which are easy to imitate; home appliance manufacturing companies generally use OEM and ODM methods. To commission the foundry, the infringement of infringement is relatively easy, the cost is low, and the amount of corporate infringement compensation needs to be improved; the innovation of large companies is enhanced, but the industry homogeneity is still serious.

From the perspective of the type, the lawsuit of home appliance companies generally involves several aspects such as patented technology, trademarks and unfair competition. Zhang Jianfeng, Executive Deputy Secretary -General of the China Household Electrical Electric Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily: "This reflects the strengthening of self -protection awareness such as patented technology and brand image of home appliances. Environmental degradation."

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