Recently, the Guangdong High People's Court rendered its second instance judgment in a smart toy patent infringement dispute, upholding the finding of infringement. Nearly concurrently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued decisions maintaining the validity of the asserted patent in response to the third and fourth rounds of invalidation petitions filed against it. Acting as counsel for the plaintiff and patentee, the Liu Shen team secured favorable outcomes for the client in both the infringement litigation and invalidation proceedings. The sustained validity of the patent solidified the proprietary foundation underpinning the final judgment in the infringement action.
The plaintiff is a leading original design enterprise in the smart toy sector. Beyond the merits of this individual victory, the case exemplifies an end to end service model tailored for domestic innovators: starting with patent mining and portfolio planning, and extending through patent drafting, grant, title confirmation and enforcement, we deliver a one stop full cycle legal service framework. In this matter, the Liu Shen team was deeply involved in patent mining and portfolio strategy as early as the product R&D phase, helping the client build a robust IP protection framework. During patent drafting, our team collaborated closely with the client to carefully craft the claim structure, comprehensively covering all inventive features while proactively anticipating design around strategies. This laid a solid foundation for subsequent patent grant and validity proceedings, and from the outset closed off opportunities for potential infringers to circumvent patent protection through inferior variant designs.
This final victory carries substantial strategic significance for the client. As a pioneer in original smart toy design, the client’s independently developed products were subject to widespread imitation and outright copying by competitors immediately upon market launch. Accordingly, the win serves not only to sanction the specific infringing defendant in this litigation, but also furnishes powerful legal support for the client’s systematic market wide enforcement campaigns anchored on this judicial precedent, achieving enforcement leverage whereby “one case shapes broader market outcomes”.
The Liu Shen representation team comprises: CHEN Xi, LIU Fang, CHENG Chi, LI Kai. Throughout the infringement litigation and multiple rounds of invalidation proceedings, the team allocated roles aligned with case facts, coordinated parallel multi track proceedings, and helped the client achieve an all round success with the final instance favorable judgment and sustained patent validity. Going forward, Liu Shen will continue to deepen its IP legal service practice and support clients’ innovation and growth through specialized legal services.
