The party involved is a leading company in the lithium-ion battery industry, with the disputed patent infringement lawsuit claiming up to RMB 65 million in damages. The case requesting invalidation of the patent has attracted significant attention in the industry. In 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) accepted Junzhiquan’s arguments, upholding the validity of the patent. This case was also chosen as one of the top ten patent reexamination invalidation cases in 2022.

In this case, Junzhiquan effectively explained how to consider the interplay among multiple technical features when defining the actual technical issue addressed by the invention. It also showcased that when delineating technical aspects, if a feature can only realize its function and purpose in the invention through collaboration with other features to achieve the corresponding technical effects, these closely intertwined and inseparable features should be acknowledged as a unified whole. Ultimately, the panel embraced this perspective, upholding the patent’s validity. This case was selected as one of the top ten patent reexamination invalidation cases in 2022.

In this series of cases, the Junzhiquan team was composed of lawyer LIU Jun and patent agent LYU Zhanzhu, among others.