On April 22, 2014, Weifang Intermediate People’s Court served the first instance judgment for the utility model patent infringement litigation GoerTek v. Knowles (Suzhou). The Court ruled patent infringement and ordered the defendants stop infringement and pay damages 37.2 million RMB (USD 6 million) for the patentee’s economic losses.
GoerTek is a Chinese manufacturer and holds utility model patent ZL200820187748.7. In May 2013, GoerTek found two defendants infringed its patent right. GoerTek filed a lawsuit in Weifang Intermediate Court claimed for injunctive relief and economic compensation of 45 million RMB. Weifang Intermediate Court conducted 13 hearings since January 2014.
The accused infringement product is the MEMS microphone and the patents relate to the structure of the PCB board for carrying the MEMS and ASIC devices, which have small structures. For proving the patent infringement, the plaintiff showed the small-structure of the accused microphone by optical microscope.
To evidence the damages, the plaintiff did detailed investigation and submitted the report of the defendant in its website presenting the sales amount. In addition, the plaintiff requested the court to obtain the defendant’s export data from the customs, which are match to the defendant’s report in its website. The plaintiff also submitted auditing report by a third party auditing firm to prove the reasonable profit rate of the patented product. The calculation of damage is made on the basis of the patentee’s loss, i.e. the defendant’s sales amount times the reasonable profit rate of the patented products, which is provided in a judicial explanation of the Supreme Court.
