Tokyo-headquartered tyre maker Bridgestone Corporation says that it has received a favourable ruling from the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court in its lawsuit regarding the infringement of patent rights against major Chinese tyre manufacturer Fangxing Rubber Co., Ltd. (Fangxing).
In September 2017, the company filed a lawsuit with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. The lawsuit claimed that tyre manufacturing and sales activities conducted by Fangxing utilised the tread pattern* of truck tyres for which the company had taken out a patent and that these activities were therefore in violation of the company’s patent rights. In May 2018, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court upheld Bridgestone’s claim and ordered Fangxing to cease activities that are in violation of the company’s patent rights and pay damages to Bridgestone in the amount of approximately 620,000 Chinese yuan.
The violated patent rights pertained to Bridgestone’s R118 truck tyre tread pattern, which was developed proprietarily by Bridgestone for China and other Asian markets.
*Tread pattern etched into the section of the tyre that comes into direct contact with the road’s surface