嘉興山蒲照明公司維權成功,獲賠超2100萬美元。
近日,美國德州法院法官就LED照明領域美國得州法院專利訴訟案件(案號CASE NO.6:20-CV-00018-ADA;原告:嘉興山蒲照明公司與Obert Inc.;被告:晨輝光寶、紹興瑞新照明、美國Elliott Electric Supply Inc.),做出判決(Entry of Judgment),判定CH在故意侵權的時間內,加重一倍的損害賠償,因此,CH須付給山蒲的損害賠償總金額約為2121萬美元(約1.43億元人民幣)。
此前,2021年11月的陪審團裁定被告侵犯原告的美國專利US 9,939,140、US 10,352,540和US 10,295,125,專利有效,且被告晨輝光寶、紹興瑞新照明(兩者合稱CH)的產品(包括Type A,Type B,包含使用了明石LT2600系列IC的雙端type-B產品)全部成立故意侵權,詳見判決書附件。
此外,Elliott須就其銷售(詳見判決書附件)其他非CH制造的產品負擔侵害賠償約30萬美元的賠償。法官尚未就陪審團判定后的侵權行為進行賠償金的判定,是以被告須負擔更多的損害賠償(也就是2021/10/11以后持續銷售的侵權品,將另作計算)。
法官在判決意見書中細數CH故意侵權的事跡,并且判定加重一倍的損害賠償。這也是該法官首次做出的加重損害賠償判決。這些被法官列舉的事跡包含:(摘錄自判決意見書,請自行對照參考)
(1)CH在知悉山蒲專利后,除了在大約2020/11/12聘雇訴訟律師外無其他作為(”They took no action other than to retain litigation counsel for this case on or about November 12,2020.”);
(2)毫無爭議的,CH持有原告山蒲的機密文件(”It is undisputed that CH possesses confidential testing report on Super Lighting tubes and a comparison of Super Lighting and CH tubes.”);
(3)CH在證據調查程序中對於何時知悉山蒲專利一事,一直閃爍其辭,但最終仍被一份中文意見書給揭發出來,CH確實早就知悉其產品的潛在侵權風險(”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)與其代理律師Radulescu在2021年5月曲解法官的裁定意旨,公開地在微信上與網絡上發表不當新聞稿意圖貶損山蒲,自恃代替法官未審先判(”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和嘉興山蒲之間的競爭猛烈,以致于CH提出不尋常的豐厚待遇把江清波從山蒲挖到CH公司,更甚者,CH被起出了嘉興山蒲的機密文檔。(”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”)。
山蒲照明在美國多年的經營宗旨是誠信并尊重知識產權,而且為創造和諧的營商環境在一直努力著,訴訟是不得已而為之的事情,也衷心希望各界能夠尊重知識產權,在市場上形成公平的競爭的氛圍,期盼各方提出自己的創新并以最優質的產品來服務消費者。對于山蒲的發明或外觀專利有興趣深入了解的,可以到訪:http://jx.super-lamps.com/patent/;該網站每月都會更新被實質審查過的各國發明或外觀專利信息,便于同業或經銷商分析,而更好的尊重專利、開展業務并取得成功。