Recently, a Shanghai-based company filed a lawsuit against the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) before Beijing Intermediate People’s Court, seeking for the court order to overturn the PRB’s decision of maintaining the patent of the iPhone design valid.
The appellant, Shanghai Luoen Tech-info Ltd (hereinafter Shanghai Luoen), claimed that the exterior design patent of the iPhone, No. ZL200730148719.0 "mobile communications device" is similar to that of the DMB MP3 player created by LG and two other handset products (818 and 828+) created by Dopod, all of which were disclosed in their granted patents before Apple, the owner of the alleged patent, filed a patent application.
Shanghai Luoen first requested a reexamination by the PRB in November 2008. The PRB decided by maintaining the patent valid in August 2009.
Then, Shanghai Luoen brought the case to Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court against PRB alleging that the iPhone's patent will severely damage the public interest.
