IPRdaily Introduction: On April 24, 2018, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court publicly pronounced its judgment on three patent infringement disputes between Gree Electric and Oaks. After a rigorous trial, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court found out the facts and fully listened to the statements of both parties. It determined that more than 10 air-conditioning products such as Oaks Golden Man, Speed ??Man, and Geek infringed on Gree Electric's integrated water tray and dual-channel air conditioners. Oaks was sentenced to compensate Gree Electric for economic losses of 46 million in three patents including air conditioner and air conditioner indoor unit, setting a new record for compensation for patent infringement in the home appliance industry.

IPRdaily news: On April 24, 2018, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court publicly pronounced its judgment on three patent infringement disputes between Gree Electric and Oaks. After a rigorous trial, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court found out the facts and fully listened to the statements of both parties. It determined that more than 10 air-conditioning products such as Oaks Golden Man, Speed ??Man, and Geek infringed on Gree Electric's integrated water tray and dual-channel air conditioners. Oaks was sentenced to compensate Gree Electric for economic losses of 46 million in three patents including air conditioner and air conditioner indoor unit, setting a new record for compensation for patent infringement in the home appliance industry.

1. Oaks once again infringed Gree Electric’s patent rights

Oaks’ infringement of Gree Electric’s patent rights was not a “first offense” but a “second offense”. In August 2016, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court ruled in the first instance that the Oaks "L-type" air conditioner product infringed Gree Electric's patent rights for the integration of limit structure, buffer structure, and water tray. It compensated Gree Electric 2.3 million yuan and immediately stopped selling the infringing air conditioner. products; in 2017, the Guangdong Provincial High Court rejected Oakes’ appeal and upheld the original judgment of the first instance; in September 2017, the Supreme Court rejected Oakes’ application for retrial.

2. Oaks has repeatedly and maliciously infringed upon Gree Electric’s patent rights

Whether it was in 2017 or 2018, Oaks infringement cases involved the “integrated technology of upper and lower water trays and bottom shells” "Patent figure. It turns out that as early as 2015, Gree Electric discovered for the first time that two L-series air conditioners from Oaks were suspected of infringing its patent for "upper and lower water trays and bottom shell integration technology" and sued; and during the first instance, Oaks continues to infringe on this patent and applies it to more than 30 products including new products in 2017. Therefore, the 2018 Oaks infringement case was triggered.

3. Gree Electric Appliances adheres to independent innovation and strengthens intellectual property protection

Gree Electric regards innovation as life and strengthens intellectual property protection. It is reported that Gree Electric has nearly 100 patents around a "painting era" air conditioner, covering a large number of patents in terms of the whole, components, and controls.

In order to change human lifestyles and provide consumers with a higher-end quality life, Gree Electric Appliances adheres to the concept of independent innovation and development, has no upper limit on scientific research investment, attaches great importance to the independent cultivation of talents, and is committed to the independent innovation system of construction. Since 2012, Gree Electric has elevated innovation to the strategic level of corporate transformation, promoting Gree Electric to achieve the transformation from "scale-driven" to "innovation-driven" development, and transforming into a global industrial group through independent creation of core technologies. .

Since 2012, under the leadership of Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu, Gree Electric’s total business volume has exceeded 1.5 times the total revenue in the past 21 years, and the total net profit has exceeded 3 times the total net profit in the past 21 years. , the total tax payment exceeds 2.7 times the total tax payment in the past 21 years, the total cumulative dividends exceed 6.7 times the cumulative total dividends in the past 16 years, the number of invention patent applications is 15 times that of the past 21 years, and the number of invention authorizations is 5 times that of the past 21 years.

In order to protect the results of independent innovation, drive core technology upgrades, and occupy technological strategic highlands, Gree Electric implements an intellectual property strategy that is highly integrated with corporate development. Gree Electric uses innovation-driven, free use and legal "monopoly" as means to expand market share and promote corporate development; it improves intellectual property business, establishes an information-guided workflow, a quality control flow aiming at pursuing high quality, and creates A high-quality, multi-directional talent team has established a full-process business and management system that integrates intellectual property and technology research and development, effectively supporting and promoting the innovation-driven development of enterprises.

Currently, Gree Electric has applied for 38,877 patents and has been granted 4,129 invention authorizations. It has registered trademarks in more than 200 countries around the world, and the cumulative number of trademark applications exceeds 10,000.

For two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017, Gree ranked among the top ten in the country in terms of the number of invention applications and invention authorizations; it also won three National Science and Technology Progress Awards and two China Patent Award Design Gold Awards.

4. Gree awakens enterprises’ awareness of innovation and creates an environment for independent innovation

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has strengthened the protection of intellectual property rights. Gree Electric actively safeguards its legitimate rights and interests, not only to protect the results of independent innovation, but also to awaken the enterprise's awareness of innovation. Enterprise innovation requires a large amount of investment and returns, so that innovation can be sustainable. Infringement of unearned gains will seriously undermine the sustainability of enterprise innovation. Under the requirements of innovation-driven development, if China's manufacturing industry wants to innovate independently and transform from Made in China to Created in China, it must severely crack down on infringements of independent intellectual property rights and create a market environment for fair competition.