On November 25th, a seminar on judicial protection of trade secrets under the new situation held in Beijing led to a serious intellectual property infringement case.
Guangdong Xinbao Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as "new treasure shares (002705)"], Zhongshan Dongling Weili Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as "Dongling Weili"] and Zhongshan Meige Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as "Meige Company"] were arrested by Guangdong Galanz Microwave Appliance Manufacturing Co., Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as "
Galanz pointed out that new treasure shares and its affiliated companies Dongling Weili, Meige Company and their legal representatives illegally obtained, disclosed and used the trade secrets of Galanz Company in a division of labor and jointly infringed. From product technology, production equipment, fixtures to production technology, a complete set of copying and illegal use of Galanz technology, such a thorough infringement case is very rare. According to preliminary estimation, the infringement scale of new treasure shares, Dongling Weili and their affiliated companies exceeds RMB 100 million.
One of the evidences for Galanz to identify new treasure shares’s infringement is that the magnetron manufactured by Meger Company is affixed with the trademark "SUNBOW" of new treasure shares, a listed company, and has "Xinbao Electrical Equipment Co". , ltd "in English.
Subsequently, new treasure shares issued a statement on Galanz’s related allegations, which mainly included two points:
1. new treasure shares has never produced or sold magnetrons; Nor has the trademark "SUNBOW" been registered on magnetron products.
2. The English name of new treasure shares’s official certification is "Guangdong Xinbao Electrical Appliances Holdings Co". ，ltd。” Instead of "Xin bao electrical equipments Co" as stated in Galanz’s evidence. ，ltd。” . Galanz Company decided that there was infringement in new treasure shares only because the self-adhesive sticker on the microwave oven product contained two pieces of information, namely "English trademark" and "English name" which were not from new treasure shares, which was extremely irresponsible.
In response to new treasure shares’s statement, Galanz immediately pointed out that this was "sophistry", mainly based on five points:
1. Xinbao Electrical Equipments Co ，Ltd。 The authentication address is the same as the registered address in new treasure shares, and the email address is the same.
According to the "Xinbao Electrical Equipments Co" marked on the magnetron manufactured by Meg Electronics. ，Ltd。” Corresponding FCC certification materials, "Xinbao Electrical Equipments Co. ，Ltd。” The FCC certification address of is the same as the registered address of new treasure shares, both of which are Zhenghe South Road, leliu town, Shunde District, Foshan City; And the registered email address is also the official email address of new treasure shares, and the email address is donlim.com.
The picture shows FCC official website certification information.
Xinbao Electrical Equipments Co。 ， Ltd FCC Wireless Applications
Link: https://fccid.io/tu5
Second, Xinbao does not produce or sell microwave ovens?
On November 25th, new treasure shares said in response to an interview with the media that Xinbao had never made a microwave oven. However, according to the FCC certification information, the product that Xinbao certified in FCC official website is microwave oven, and the FCC ID is TU5XB23162616.
The full name of FCC is Federal Communications Commission, and the Chinese language is Federal Communications Commission. Established in 1934 according to the Communications Act, it is an independent agency of the US government and directly reports to Congress. The FCC coordinates domestic and international communications by controlling radio broadcasting, television, telecommunications, satellites and cables. Many radio application products, communication products and digital products need FCC approval to enter the American market. If Xinbao doesn’t produce and sell microwave ovens, why should it certify microwave oven products as Xinbao Company?
3. Does Xinbao not produce or sell magnetrons?
According to Galanz’s evidence, one of the magnetrons produced on October 24, 2019 was marked with Sunbow Xin Bao Electrical Equipment Co. ，ltd。 .
4. Xinbao has never registered the trademark "SUNBOW" on magnetron products.
SUNBOW has appeared as a trademark on the magnetron of Galanz fixed evidence. If Xinbao doesn’t register "SUNBOW" on the magnetron category, but uses it in production and sales, isn’t this a factual infringement?
Five, the case really has nothing to do with new treasure shares?
New treasure shares said in a statement on 25th that after comprehensive verification and consulting the professional advice of a third-party legal adviser, he believed that this incident had nothing to do with new treasure shares, and there was no infringement in new treasure shares.
In fact, new treasure shares, Dongling Weili and Meige Company involved in the case are all the same actual controller Guo Jiangang, and new treasure shares also clearly stated in the 2020 Semi-annual Report of Guangdong Xinbao Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. that Zhongshan Dongling Weili Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. is an enterprise with great influence from the actual controller in new treasure shares.
In this lawsuit, there is also a key person, "Liu Yinbo", who is also the fourth defendant in this case. He is a resigned employee of Galanz Microwave Oven Company. He worked in Galanz magnetron manufacturing department for nearly 20 years. During his tenure, he served as the deputy section chief of the comprehensive management department and the head of the technical process group of the magnetron manufacturing department, participated in the core research and development process of Galanz magnetron technology, and mastered the overall process technical information of Galanz magnetron products such as production, processing, tooling and technology.
According to the survey information of Galanz, Liu Yinbo sent confidential cost and technical information of Galanz to Dongling Power by email while still working in Galanz Microwave Oven Company in 2016, and accepted the employment contract of Dongling Power, and was hired as the technical director of Dongling Power. In January 2017, after Liu Yinbo left Galanz, he established Meige Company, which is 100% owned by Dongling Power, and began to produce a large number of magnetron products using Galanz trade secrets, all of which were supplied to Dongling Power. The magnetron products produced were printed with the registered trademark of "new treasure shares" and the English company name. "Dongling Weili" uses a large number of magnetron products accused of infringement for its microwave oven products, reducing the production cost of its microwave oven products to compete viciously in the global market. According to preliminary estimation, the infringement scale of new treasure shares, Dongling Weili and their affiliated companies exceeds RMB 100 million. "new treasure shares" also uses the magnetron products of Galanz trade secrets and produces microwave oven products.
It is reported that the magnetron is the core component of the microwave oven. As a vacuum technology, the technical threshold is extremely high, which determines the efficacy difference of microwave oven products and can reflect the real value of the whole machine. Galanz Company established the Magnetron Manufacturing Department in 2000, and invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources in the independent research and development of magnetron related technologies. After 20 years of hard work, Galanz has invested more than 1 billion yuan, and has independently developed many generations of magnetron products, and developed a complete set of production equipment, fixtures, technological processes, microwave leakage safety protection and other core technologies for the production, processing and assembly of magnetron products and their spare parts. The independent core technology of magnetron, its support, the specific suppliers and other business information are the core competitiveness of Galanz Microwave Oven Company.
It is also known that due to the high economic and commercial value of the infringed trade secrets, Galanz Microwave Oven Company reported the case to the local public security organ in July this year, and was placed on file on July 24, and the suspect Liu has been criminally detained. During the handling of the case, except for dozens of finished magnetron products and some parts involved, other products, equipment and property involved have not been seized or sealed up.
The home appliance industry has always been the "hardest hit" for intellectual property infringement cases such as technology, patents and trade secrets, such as Gree and Oaks, Supor and Combach, Midea and Yunmi, etc. Recently, the number of patent infringement cases has continued, which also reflects that the overall awareness of the home appliance industry for the protection of intellectual property rights has been greatly improved, and it has further promoted the self-discipline of enterprises that only want to "take shortcuts".
Technological innovation is the foundation for enterprises to settle down and the only way for China to become a powerful home appliance country. Without strong intellectual property protection, it will undoubtedly greatly dampen the innovation enthusiasm of market participants. For enterprises that are opportunistic by stealing the core technology of their peers, it is a typical robber behavior and should naturally be severely curbed.