Tensar Wins Patent Cases Against Chinese Infringers
International ground stabilisation specialist, Tensar®, has successfully defended its TriAx® product range against several Chinese patent infringements.
The TriAx geogrid – patented in many countries around the world by Tensar for use in ground stabilisation, road, rail and other applications – has received numerous awards for innovation and achieved considerable commercial success since its introduction only a few years ago.
Several Chinese manufacturers and their distributors attempted to take advantage of this success by producing similar triangular aperture geogrid products, thereby infringing upon Tensar’s TriAx patent.
Tensar sought the voluntary co-operation of these parties to cease and desist from their infringing activities. When these efforts failed, Tensar commenced legal proceedings in various venues in China to protect its substantial investment in this new technology, which includes a TriAx geogrid production facility in Wuhan.
To date, Tensar has pursued three separate cases through the Chinese legal system and prevailed in each instance.
In one case against the Chinese manufacturer, Chengdu Pike Geosynthetics Company Limited, and its distributor, Beijing Yuhan Century Technology Company Limited, Tensar’s TriAx geogrid was found by the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court to be a novel product.
The Court further held that the two companies were infringing Tensar’s TriAx patent registered in China. Tensar was awarded damages to be paid by Pike, which was also required to pay court costs.
In a second matter, Tensar applied to the Patent Re-examination Board (PRB) within the State Intellectual Property Office to revoke a Chinese patent filed by Yixing Huatai Geosynthetics Company Limited.
This company claimed to have invented a product similar to Tensar’s TriAx geogrid. The PRB concluded that the Yixing patent was invalid in its entirety, due in part to Tensar’s pre-existing TriAx patent in China, and ordered that the Yixing patent be removed from the Chinese Patent Registry.
In the third case, another competitor – Hebei BaoYuan Engineering Plastics Company Limited – sought to invalidate Tensar’s TriAx patent before the PRB. In a hearing in July 2011, the PRB ruled in Tensar’s favour finding that all material claims of its Chinese TriAx patent were valid.
Since its original invention of the first integral oriented geogrid in the late 1970s, Tensar has been committed to advancing the geosynthetics industry through new products, applications and engineering.
Part of this commitment is also to protect its Intellectual Property rights from unlawful infringement wherever this may occur. These recent actions demonstrate that it is possible to successfully pursue such cases through the Chinese legal system.
Ends
Notes to editors:
Tensar International is part of Tensar Corporation, a leading global developer and manufacturer of proprietary, highly engineered, non-traditional site-development solutions for infrastructure end-markets, including transportation, commercial and industrial construction.
Tensar provides its customers with an integrated suite of innovative products, technologies and application expertise for a wide variety of end uses, including high performance roadways, earth retention structures, building foundations and erosion and sediment control.
In 2007, Tensar launched TriAx™ a new geogrid which Tensar believes offers superior performance in multi-directional stiffness and aggregate confinement, which enables better radial load resistance, resulting in a reduction in aggregate base thickness and improved resistance to rutting.
The company also offers a comprehensive design service, technical seminars and on-site support, as part of a range of support services. Tensar International, formerly The Netlon Group, was founded in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1952.
Tensar International Ltd
Cunningham Court
Shadsworth Business Park
Blackburn
Lancashire
BB1 2QX
Tel: 01254 262431
Email: sales@tensar.co.uk
Web: http://www.tensar.co.uk
Original of this article here