Case Summary

Baihetan Hydroelectric Dam is in the mainstream of the lower reaches of the Jinsha River in both Sichuan and Yunnan Province. It is the first-class hydroelectric dam in the “Yangtze River Basin Comprehensive Planning (2012-2030)” approved by the State Council. It is also the world’s largest hydroelectric dam under construction.

Defendant A, the 8th Hydropower Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. Of Sinohydro, was contracted for the civil construction and metal structure installation on the right bank of the Baihetan Hydroelectric Dam. In order to implement the installation of the gate groove to seal the bottom hole in the right bank dam project, defendant A used the “doorway hydraulic self-climbing formwork trolley” device manufactured and sold by defendant B - Beijing Zhuoliang Formwork Co., Ltd.

The plaintiff, Chengdu Alang Technology Co., Ltd. is the right holder of the No. ZL201310018684.3 invention patent, entitled “A construction method and device for gate slot”, they believed that the two defendants had constituted patent infringement, so that they initiated litigation at the Intermediate People’s Court of Changsha City. The case number is (2018) Hunan Province Civil First Instance No. 7000.

Unitalen Attorneys at Law represented the defendant in response to the charge.

The Court’s Ruling

On August 21, 2019, Unitalen received the No. 41305 Invalidation Decision issued by the National Intellectual Property Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department, which confirmed that all the rights in No. ZL201310018684.3 patent are invalid.

On September 9, 2019, the Changsha Intermediate People's Court issued the civil judgement that it’s allowed for Chengdu Alang Technology Co., Ltd. to withdraw the lawsuit.

Herewithin, Unitalen helped the defendant win a comprehensive victory of this patent infringement and invalidation case. This case is a typical case of applying Paragraphs 3 and 4, Article 26 of the Patent Law to invalidate patents successfully.