Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI) has now reached a settlement with Chinese tyre manufacturer Timsun Rubber Tire (Weihai) Co., Ltd. (Timsun Tire) after the latter admitted to infringing upon SRI’s intellectual property rights by manufacturing and selling motorcycle tyres that used SRI’s patented tread pattern.
SRI filed the lawsuit in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court on January 11, 2019, seeking an injunction against the infringement, etc. of patent rights and design rights previously secured in China; the suit concerns the design rights to the tread pattern for SRI’s DUNLOP “GEOMAX MX52” tyres for competitive motocross racing and the patent rights to its proprietary “Progressive Cornering Block Technology” for tyres.
The lawsuit has now concluded in a settlement in which Timsun Tire has admitted infringement and agreed to pay a settlement fee.
SRI will continue to take aggressive measures to protect its intellectual property – which is considered to be an invaluable asset – from any unauthorised use or infringement. “At the same time, we will also continue to actively develop new cutting-edge technologies while working to ensure the integrity of our intellectual property so that we may utilise it to its fullest,” SRI highlights.