A Paris district court has dismissed claims of patent infringement brought against ZTE Corporation by fellow Chinese technology company and competitor Huawei Technologies Company.
In a decision March 28, 2013, the Paris District Court rejected all of Huawei’s claims over the EP724 data card patent. The decision to reject demands of payment of damages to Huawei, and dismissing its infringement claim against the ZTE followed similar rulings in China and Germany. The Paris court dismissed Huawei’s claim over the “rotator head” data card patent on grounds of lack of novelty, and ordered Huawei to pay €100,000 in damages to ZTE and ZTE’s subsidiary in France.
Reports elsewhere indicates that ZTE has won numerous patent rulings against Huawei in different jurisdictions in the past two years, as the company defends more than 10 patent infringement claims initiated by Huawei in courts in Europe.
In June 2012, the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office in China ruled Huawei’s data card patent to be invalid. In October 2012, the German Federal Patent Court issued a preliminary verdict to invalidate Huawei’s data card patent, and rejected all six of Huawei’s modification proposals.
According to the ruling of the Paris court, Huawei’s data card patent lacked novelty in all three key technical features.
1. The components of the USB connector were previously specified in the US2004/0048494 A1 patent in the United States.
2. The elastic effect of the shaft end of the USB connector and component was previously specified in a patent filed by a company in Hangzhou, China.
3. The accommodating portion of the outward casing of the USB product was covered by the 200520016967.5 patent.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi