UNITALEN settled patent dispute with three Chinese companies on behalf of SEW

May 8, 2007
Lasting as long as two years, the Sino-Germany design patent dispute finally came to an amicable end. On April 3, the German company SEW Eurodrive Co., Ltd. (SEW) entrusted UNITALEN to sign an agreement with three Chinese companies regarding the patent dispute. Although the negotiation lasted one year, both of the two parties are satisfied with the results.

The three Chinese companies acknowledged that their products infringed SEW’s Intellectual Property rights. They signed declarations, with which they accepted the preliminary injunctions issued by the District Court Brunswick in favor of SEW as binding. They further undertook that they would respect SEW’s Intellectual Property rights in the future and that they would not deliver their infringing products to Germany and Europe any longer.

The three aforementioned Chinese companies have paid a compensation to SEW in order to reimburses SEW for its costs and damages caused by the infringement.

SEW accepted not to sue the three aforementioned companies for their infringement of SEW’s Intellectual Property rightd which took place during Hannover Industry Fair 2005 as long as they fully complied with the Settlement Agreement and paid the compensation to SEW.

During the World Trade Fair for Industrial & Automation Technology in Hanover in April 2005, SEW believed that the exhibiting products by four Chinese companies, including Hangzhou Speed Reducer Factory, Zhejiang Tongli Speed Reducers Co., Ltd. and Taizhou Qinghua Machinery Co., Ltd., had infringed SEW’s design patent. SEW applied for preliminary injunction with local authoritative department to remove the stands of the four Chinese enterprises and detain their exhibiting products.

Entrusted by SEW, Unitalen appointed Mr. CHI Song and TAO Yang to negotiate with the four Chinese companies to reach a settlement. The case also drew attention of CHINA GEAR MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION (CGMA). Under the lead of CGMA, UNITALEN on behalf of SEW came to the negotiating table with the four Chinese companies in November 2005. Being the first time for the Gear Industry to settle IP dispute in an amicable way, every step towards the settlement is unprecedented. After rounds of negotiation and communication, times of discussions and revisions on every provision, SEW and the three Chinese companies finally reached the satisfactory provisions and signed the agreement one year later.

(For more details, please contact Unitalen Attorneys at Law )

　

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