In 2004, the leakage protection circuit breaker produced in Tongling was strongly resisted by American counterparts as soon as it was sold to the American market. In 2004 and 2005, Lefton Company, a 500-year-old American company, sued Tongling Group and American distributors for infringing 558 and 766 patents respectively. Chen Wusheng told this story in an interview with reporters yesterday.
Shortly after the prosecution, the other side asked for peace talks. At that time, I thought it was an opportunity and rushed to the United States. "Unexpectedly, the other party immediately accused us of infringement after receiving my gift to their boss. We are required to pay them a patent fee of 5 to 10 cents for every product sold. " Chen Wusheng said that at that time, the company only agreed to this request after considering more than one thing, but I didn't expect Lefton to put forward a new request, asking Tonglin to give up the patent that had been applied for in the United States and admit that it had infringed on them.
"We refused on the spot." Chen Wusheng said that he always remembered a sentence said by the technical vice president of Lefton Company at that time: "Mr. Chen, you can't afford a lawsuit in the United States. Lefton has plenty of money, and I will definitely defeat the leader by means of litigation. " At that time, Chen Wusheng clearly told Lefton: "Even if you lose everything, you must stick to the lawsuit." Lefton was obviously prepared. For the same patent and the same claim, the company appealed to four dealers in four different federal courts, and the legal fees increased several times.
"From the beginning, we actively responded to the lawsuit and put forward two motions to the Federal District Court of New Mexico, asking the court to concentrate four cases in our court; During the litigation, Lefton Company shall not sue Tonglin dealers under any pretext. " Chen Wusheng said that despite the strong opposition from Lefton, the court agreed to two motions, which led to the success of the first battle.
After a three-year contest, in July 2007 10, the federal district court of New Mexico of the United States ruled that the defendants such as Psychic Group won the case. This became the first case of Sino-US intellectual property litigation in which China enterprises won the case. Lefton once again demanded reconciliation at this time, proposing that the two sides would not sue each other in the future, and Tong Ling agreed to this reconciliation condition.
"At that time, we promised their reconciliation request purely from the perspective of doing business, but I didn't expect it to be anticlimactic." Chen Wusheng said. Passsim, an industry alliance in Lefton, USA, sued four China enterprises, including Tongling Group, to ITC in the United States on the grounds of patent infringement. On March 30th, 2009, American ITC ruled that Tonglin Group infringed the patent right and prohibited GFCI products produced by China manufacturers such as Tonglin Group from being imported through American Customs.
On September 7, 2009, Tongling Group was forced to sue ITC in the United States Federal Circuit Court. After 345 days of competition, it finally won on August 27th of 20 10.