Shenzhen firm claims exterior design too similar to its product
Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) Co and Beijing Zhongfu Telecommunications Equipment Co have jointly filed a lawsuit against the Beijing Intellectual Property Office (BJIPO) over its patent infringement ruling, an employee at Beijing Zhongfu told the Global Times on Thursday.
The Beijing Intellectual Property Court (BIPC) has accepted the lawsuit, and the case is now under investigation, the employee said.
The decision of the BJIPO was publicly announced on May 10. According to the announcement, the exterior design of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models is similar to the Mobile (100C) produced by Shenzhen Baili Marketing Service Inc with only minor differences.
The similarity makes it hard for consumers to tell the phones apart, and is therefore judged as an infringement on Baili's smartphone patent.
In accordance with China's Patent Law, the BJIPO ordered Apple to stop selling the alleged infringing products.
Beijing Zhongfu was ordered to stop offering for sale or selling the products, the ruling stated.
Baili is a domestic mobile phone producer established in 2012. The company applied for a patent for the Mobile (100C) in January 2014, and it received approval in July the same year, according to an announcement on the BJIPO website.
That was three months before Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus officially went on sale in China.
Apple didn't reply to e-mail inquiries from the Global Times as of press time. But domestic news portal sina.com reported on Thursday that both Apple and Zhongfu had refused to accept the decision. They claimed that compared with the Mobile (100C), the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were neither similar nor identical.
The two companies also requested the court to overrule the BJIPO's decision, as well as declared that the alleged infringing products were not included in the scope of patent rights protection, the sina.com report said.
The BJIPO and BIPC were not available for comment on Thursday.
"If the court's ruling favors the decision of the BJIPO, Apple will probably be banned from selling iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China for the first time and also be liable for economic compensation," Zhao Zhanling, legal counsel for the Internet Society of China, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Zhao also noted that the court's hearing is just the start of the legal process, which means if Apple's claim fails at that stage, the company can appeal to higher courts.
It is not the first time that Apple has been involved in a patent infringement dispute in China.
In May, following a ruling by the Beijing High People's Court, Apple lost the use of the "IPHONE" trademark on leather goods to local company Xintong Tiandi Technology (Beijing) Co in China, according to media reports.
The company also suffered a blow in April, as its iBook Store and iTunes Movies were ordered by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to shut down just six months after they started operations, domestic news portal qq.com reported.
Expert noted that recently, Apple has been experiencing tougher times in China, partly due to a stricter legal environment in the country.
"The company should comply with Chinese regulations and pursue technological innovations, otherwise it will gradually lose its competitive advantage to domestic mobile competitors like Huawei, Oppo and Letv," Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based independent industry analyst, told the Global Times Thursday.
Apple's sales in the Chinese market plunged 26 percent year-on-year to $12.49 billion in the second quarter for 2016 fiscal year, the company's latest financial report showed.
