AnJie Law Firm

Li Wu of AnJie Law Firm explains how the administrative and judicial sectors are slowly embracing a more favourable stance towards the acceptance of post-filing supplementary data

On August 28 2020, the Chinese Supreme People's Court (SPC) granted the very first anti-suit injunction in the standard essential patent (SEP) royalty dispute case of Huawei v Conversant, which enjoined Conversant Wireless Licensing (Conversant) from seeking enforcement of the Dusseldorf regional court's injunction ruling against Huawei Technologies (Huawei). This case thus opened the door for Chinese courts to issue anti-suit injunctions (ASIs).

Back at the end of April, the Committee of the Science and Technology Innovation Board at the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced that the meeting for reviewing the initial public offering (IPO) application of MEMSensing, a Chinese MEMS microphone sensor supplier, was cancelled due to an "emergence of significant matters." The "significant matters" they were referring to were 16 patent disputes brought by Goertek seeking both permanent injunctions and damages totalling over RMB 100 million ($14.5 million). Goertek and MEMSensing are competitors producing MEMS microphones, a key component in the smart speakers of Google, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba, and Xiaomi.