2026-03-19
Recently, the ACIES Team, represented by lawyers Chengen Wang and Haohui Chen, achieved a significant victory in a patent invalidation administrative lawsuit, successfully obtaining a retrial ruling from the Supreme People's Court. The final judgment overturned the first-instance verdict and the relevant invalidation decision by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), ordering a re-examination of the core claims in the case.
The utility model patent owned by the client was declared "totally invalid" by the CNIPA following a third-party challenge. After taking over the case, the Fengxian Team quickly conducted a precise analysis and formulated a strategy focused on preserving the more technically valuable Claim 5, arguing that the CNIPA had made factual errors.
Although the first-instance court acknowledged the team's argument regarding the CNIPA's error, it introduced a new combination of evidence to evaluate the inventiveness of Claim 5 and dismissed the lawsuit. The team keenly identified this procedural flaw and made it the cornerstone of their appeal.
In the appeal, the team strongly argued that the first-instance court, by altering the basis of the challenged decision without hearing the patentee's opinion, had seriously violated legal procedures and deprived the party of their right to debate. The Supreme People's Court fully adopted the team's arguments, ruling that the first-instance judgment constituted procedural illegality and should be overturned.
This successful appeal not only "revived" the client's valuable patent claims but also clarified procedural rules for patent administrative litigation from the perspective of procedural justice. It demonstrates the Fengxian Team's exceptional professional judgment and strategic prowess in handling complex intellectual property cases.
