South Korean electrical appliance company LG has launched legal action against Guangdong-based Galanz for alleged patent infringement in its microwave ovens.
No decision was made yesterday in its first hearing at the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.
As the world's leading microwave oven manufacturer, Galanz covers 40 percent of the global sales and 50 percent of the Chinese market share, according to company sources.
LG, which has a newly established production line in Tianjin, has posed a strong challenge to Galanz.
Tianjin LG Electronics has called for 1.5 million yuan (US$181,000) compensation from Galanz for alleged infringement in the "automatic cooking equipment" of its four types of ovens.
LG achieved a patent in China in 2001 on the automatic cooking equipment after inventing it in 1996, LG's indictment said.
LG also said the amount of compensation is preliminarily calculated as four times the possible income of the accused from allegedly infringing LG's patent.
During the hearing yesterday, a representative of Galanz requested to stop the trial as "the accused put forward an application last year to the patent re-examination board under the State Intellectual Property Office to declare LG's patent invalid.
"The patent involved in the lawsuit is not inventive," said Wang Mingxia, the patent agent for Galanz, who represented the company in the court instead of a lawyer.
As the patent re-examination board has not given the final judgment as whether the LG patent is valid or not, the accusation by LG is meaningless, according to Wang.
(China Daily July 11, 2003)
