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French electrical firm pays $23m for IPR violation

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-16 08:17

HANGZHOU -- French electrical company Schneider has agreed to pay 157.5 million yuan ($23 million) to China's Chint Group as a settlement to end a three-year patent lawsuit, a court in Zhejiang province said on Wednesday.

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Tianjin-based Schneider Electric Low Voltage Co Ltd, in which Schneider holds 75 percent, will pay the money within 15 days to Zhejiang-based Chint Group for infringing the latter's patent on electrical apparatus technology, according to the agreement reached at the provincial court.

The two rivals, which had been warring with each other over patent infringement since 1999, also reached a global compromise, but details were not released.

In September 2007, the Wenzhou intermediate people's court ruled that Schneider pay 334.8 million yuan to compensate Chint's losses as five models of Schneider's apparatus were based on Chint technology.

The amount of compensation was believed to be the highest in China in an intellectual property rights case.

Schneider appealed to the higher court, citing invalidation of the patented technology.

The two sides negotiated for more than 20 days before the agreement was reached at the higher court, said Chen Jianke, vice-president of Chint.

Chint's success will spur Chinese enterprises to pay closer attention to protecting their intellectual property rights and using recourse to law to protect themselves, said Nan Cunhui, board chairman of Chint.

Chint has grown from a small workshop with only 50,000 yuan as initial investment to a major global manufacturer of low-voltage electric apparatus. It has been trying to expand to Germany, Italy, France and some other countries once dominated by Schneider.