In a patent infringement case, the Supreme People's Court established that when a product manufacturer provides software and an operation manual as essential components to achieve the functions of the accused product, any functionality achieved by importing processed data into the product following the manual’s instructions shall be regarded as technical features forming part of the accused product’s technical solution. Since the combined technical solution is knowingly and integrally supplied by the manufacturer, the technical solution comprising both the product and the software may be assessed as the accused infringing technical solution.
This article concerns a dispute over an invention patent infringement, with the case summarized as follows:
Company A, as the patentee of a patent titled “Thermal Imaging Apparatus and Thermal Imaging Method,” accused Company B of infringement and filed a lawsuit before the first-instance court.
The first-instance court ruled to dismiss Company A’s claims.
The court held that implementing the patented technical solution requires the thermal imaging apparatus to store a "reference image," which must then be selected and used to generate "reference image-related configuration data" before ultimately being displayed or synthesized with the captured infrared thermal image. However, during an on-site inspection, it was observed that the accused product only contained a "reference image" after Company A imported data processed through the PdmIR software into an SD card and inserted it into the device. In the demonstration, Company A showed how the "reference image" stored on the SD card was selected and used to generate "reference image-related configuration data." These features of the "reference image" and "reference image-related configuration data" were introduced and chosen by Company A itself after loading the data into the product. As a result, the accused infringing solution offered by Company B was found to lack the essential technical features of "reference image" and "reference image-related configuration data" as specified in the patent claims.
Dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment, Company A appealed.
The Supreme People’s Court overturned the first-instance judgment and ruled that Company B must cease infringement and pay compensation.
In its second-instance decision, the Supreme People's Court identified one of the core issues as whether the accused technical solution fell within the scope of the patent claims. Regarding the nature of the accused infringing technical solution, specifically, whether importing an externally processed task-specific data package into the accused product constituted infringement, the Court explained that those skilled in the art understand that a product's functionality may vary depending on the supporting software, even when the underlying hardware is the same. If a manufacturer provides software as an accessory to the product and the purchaser uses the product in combination with that software, the resulting integrated technical solution is effectively delivered in full knowledge by the manufacturer. Therefore, the combined technical solution, comprising both the product’s hardware features and the software’s functional features, can be considered the accused infringing technical solution.
In this case, the software and operation manual provided by Company B not only served as a user guide but also contained essential technical instructions for achieving the product’s described functions. Consequently, the functionality achieved by following the manual to import software-processed data into the product should be regarded as part of the technical solution of the accused product. Furthermore, the patent specification clarifies that the “storage unit” may include external media connected by wired or wireless means, confirming that the “configuration data” referenced in the patent encompasses data imported via such external storage. Thus, data imported through external storage media falls under the “configuration data” defined in the patent claims.
Based on demonstrations during the first and second-instance proceedings, after importing the ledger information data processed by Company B's software into an SD card and inserting the card into the accused product, the product exhibited the technical features of a “reference image” and “reference image-related configuration data” as claimed in the patent. This led the court to conclude that the accused technical solution fell within the scope of the patent’s protection.
Through this ruling, the Supreme People’s Court recognized the role of external software and imported data as part of the overall technical solution, thereby establishing a clearer method for patent infringement assessment. Specifically, when a manufacturer provides software and associated operational guidelines as integral components of the product, and defines how users should implement them, the functionality derived from the imported data may be treated as inherent technical features of the product itself. This judicial interpretation offers practical guidance for hardware companies performing thorough freedom-to-operate (FTO) analyses and assists innovators in drafting more precise and enforceable patents.
(2023) Zui Gao Fa Zhi Min Zhong No. 2699
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