嘉兴山蒲照明公司维权成功,获赔超2100万美元。
近日,美国德州法院法官就LED照明领域美国得州法院专利诉讼案件(案号CASE NO.6:20-CV-00018-ADA;原告:嘉兴山蒲照明公司与Obert Inc.;被告:晨辉光宝、绍兴瑞新照明、美国Elliott Electric Supply Inc.),做出判决(Entry of Judgment),判定CH在故意侵权的时间内,加重一倍的损害赔偿,因此,CH须付给山蒲的损害赔偿总金额约为2121万美元(约1.43亿元人民币)。
此前,2021年11月的陪审团裁定被告侵犯原告的美国专利US 9,939,140、US 10,352,540和US 10,295,125,专利有效,且被告晨辉光宝、绍兴瑞新照明(两者合称CH)的产品(包括Type A,Type B,包含使用了明石LT2600系列IC的双端type-B产品)全部成立故意侵权,详见判决书附件。
此外,Elliott须就其销售(详见判决书附件)其他非CH制造的产品负担侵害赔偿约30万美元的赔偿。法官尚未就陪审团判定后的侵权行为进行赔偿金的判定,是以被告须负担更多的损害赔偿(也就是2021/10/11以后持续销售的侵权品,将另作计算)。
法官在判决意见书中细数CH故意侵权的事迹,并且判定加重一倍的损害赔偿。这也是该法官首次做出的加重损害赔偿判决。这些被法官列举的事迹包含:(摘录自判决意见书,请自行对照参考)
(1)CH在知悉山蒲专利后,除了在大约2020/11/12聘雇诉讼律师外无其他作为(”They took no action other than to retain litigation counsel for this case on or about November 12,2020.”);
(2)毫无争议的,CH持有原告山蒲的机密文件(”It is undisputed that CH possesses confidential testing report on Super Lighting tubes and a comparison of Super Lighting and CH tubes.”);
(3)CH在证据调查程序中對於何時知悉山蒲專利一事,一直闪烁其辞,但最终仍被一份中文意见书给揭发出来,CH确实早就知悉其产品的潜在侵权风险(”Defendants never substantively responded to Plaintiffs’discovery requests regarding Defendants’awareness of the Asserted Patents and any steps Defendants took once they gained that awareness.The existence of the Chinese opinion does suggest that CH and Ruising were aware and concerned of the potential risks the Asserted Patents posed to Defendants’products.”);
(4)江清波(CH重要干部)与其代理律师Radulescu在2021年5月曲解法官的裁定意旨,公开地在微信上与网络上发表不当新闻稿意图贬损山蒲,自恃代替法官未审先判(”This Court,granted Defendants leave to amend their answer to Super Lighting’s complaint.Yet Jack Jiang took to WeChat,a popular social platform in China,and described that ruling as an“acknowledgement that[Super Lighting’s]patents were acquired illegally.”“That is a misrepresentation of this court’s order.”“Jack and his counsel at Radulescu also issued a press release…”);
(5)法官也采信CH和嘉兴山蒲之间的竞争猛烈,以致于CH提出不寻常的丰厚待遇把江清波从山蒲挖到CH公司,更甚者,CH被起出了嘉兴山蒲的机密文档。(”The Court is persuaded that the competition between Super Lighting and CH is fierce;it drove CH to poach Jack Jiang from Super Lighting by offering“unusually large benefits.”“Moreover,CH produced Super Lighting’s confidential documents”)。
山蒲照明在美国多年的经营宗旨是诚信并尊重知识产权,而且为创造和谐的营商环境在一直努力着,诉讼是不得已而为之的事情,也衷心希望各界能够尊重知识产权,在市场上形成公平的竞争的氛围,期盼各方提出自己的创新并以最优质的产品来服务消费者。对于山蒲的发明或外观专利有兴趣深入了解的,可以到访:http://jx.super-lamps.com/patent/;该网站每月都会更新被实质审查过的各国发明或外观专利信息,便于同业或经销商分析,而更好的尊重专利、开展业务并取得成功。