Geely Motor sued Weimar for theft of trade secrets and technology infringement case finally came to an end.
The Weima intellectual property infringement case advocated by Geely began in 2018 and lasted for six years, and the dust was finally settled.
In the second instance, the Supreme people’s Court applied twice punitive damages to the infringer to compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses for safeguarding rights, totaling more than 640 million yuan, setting an all-time high in the amount of damages awarded in intellectual property infringement litigation in China.
The intellectual property Court of the Supreme people’s Court recently concluded an appeal case of technical secret infringement of the chassis of new energy vehicles caused by a large number of employees “job-hopping” between Geely and Weimar.
The Supreme people’s Court applied twice the punitive damages judgment to Weima Motor to compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses for safeguarding rights, totaling more than 640 million yuan, setting an all-time high in the amount of compensation awarded in intellectual property infringement litigation in China.
According to 
and , nearly 40 senior managers and technicians of Chengdu Plateau Automotive Industry Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely holding Group Co., Ltd., successively left to work for Weima Automotive Technology Group Co., Ltd. and its related companies, and 30 of them joined the job immediately after leaving in 2016.
In 2018, Geely Holdings Group found that Weima Group and Weima Wisdom Travel Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. used some of the above-mentioned departing personnel as inventors or co-inventors.
using the application technology of the new energy vehicle chassis contacted and mastered in the original unit, as well as 12 sets of chassis parts drawings and technical information carried by digital models (hereinafter referred to as “technical secrets involved in the case”), we have applied for 12 utility model patents.
And Weima Group, Weima Automobile Manufacturing Wenzhou Co., Ltd., Weima Wisdom Travel Co., Ltd., Weima New Energy vehicle sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., without any technology accumulation or legal technology sources, launched EX series electric vehicles in a short period of time, suspected of infringing upon the technical secrets involved in Geely holding Group and Zhejiang Geely Automobile Research Institute Co., Ltd. Geely filed a lawsuit with the court of first instance, requesting to order Weimar to stop the infringement and compensate for its economic losses and reasonable expenses for safeguarding its rights, totaling 2.
1 billion yuan.
The court of first instance held that Weima Wenzhou Company had infringed upon the technical secrets of five sets of chassis parts drawings of Geely involved in the case, and decided that Weima Wenzhou Company should compensate Geely for economic losses of 5 million yuan and reasonable expenses for safeguarding its rights of 2 million yuan.
Geely holding Group, Geely Research Institute and Weimar Wenzhou Company all refused to accept the judgment of first instance and appealed to the Supreme people’s Court.
After hearing the case, the Supreme people’s Court held that the case was an organized and planned case of infringing on technical secrets caused by the large-scale poaching of technical personnel and technical resources of new energy vehicles.
The verdict pointed out that the people’s court should pay more attention to the overall analysis and comprehensive judgment on the alleged infringement of technical secrets caused by the organized, planned and large-scale excavation of talents and technical resources of other enterprises.
If the accused infringer produces the product related to the technical secret involved in the case within a reasonable time obviously shorter than that required for independent research and development, and the accused infringer has the channel or opportunity to obtain the technical secret involved in the case, at this time, because of the great possibility of infringement, the burden of proof of the infringement of the technical secret right holder should be further reduced, and the accused infringer can be directly presumed to have committed the act of infringing the technical secret of the obligee.
The outstanding feature of this case is that Geely subordinate Chengdu Plateau Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. up to the general manager, project research and development team leader, technical vice general manager, technical department minister, down to a number of employees who have come into contact with or mastered the technical secrets involved in the technical research and development of the automobile chassis, in a relatively short period of time, organized, planned, large-scale centralized departure from the original unit and merged into Weiwei Ma Fang and its associated companies.
Weimar has access to the technical secrets of the Geely party involved in the case, and there is no technology accumulation or legal technical sources in the field of new energy vehicles, and the evidence can also prove that Weimar side illegally obtained the technical secrets of the Geely party involved and disclosed and used them.
According to the above factors, Weimar not only obtained all the technical secrets involved in the case by improper means, but also illegally disclosed some of the technical secrets involved in the case by applying for a patent, and used all the technical secrets involved to manufacture the chassis and chassis parts of Weimar EX series electric vehicles.
The court ordered that the four Weimar companies should immediately stop disclosing, using and allowing others to use the technical secrets of the Geely party involved in the case.
stop disclosing, using, allowing others to use the technical secrets involved in the case, stop selling automobile chassis and chassis parts manufactured using the technical secrets involved in the case, and stop infringing until the technical secret information involved is known to the public.
They shall not implement, authorize others to implement, transfer, pledge or otherwise dispose of the 12 patents for utility models involved in the case, including maliciously waiving the patent right by failing to pay the annual patent fee on time and in full or by not actively responding to the request for invalidation of the patent.
Within the specified period of performance of the judgment, under the supervision of the people’s court or the witness of the holder of the technical secret involved in the case, all drawings, digital models and other technical materials containing the technical secrets involved in the case held or controlled by Weimar Fang four companies and associated companies and all active or outgoing employees, as well as the chassis and chassis parts suppliers of Weima EX series electric vehicles shall be destroyed or transferred to the holder of the technical secret involved in the case.
And notify the shareholders, directors, supervisors, senior managers, all employees and subsidiaries, subsidiaries, other affiliated companies with investment relations and the chassis and chassis parts suppliers of Weimar EX series electric vehicles.
(compiled / Automotive Home Wang Yin), return to the first electric net home page.
