After seven years of litigation, battenfeld-cincinnati (Foshan) Extrusion Systems, the Chinese subsidiary of machinery maker battenfeld-cincinnati (Bad Oeynhausen / Germany; www.battenfeld-cincinnati.de), has emerged victorious in its intellectual property suit against Chinese competitor Donghua Machinery (Dongguan, Guangdong Province; www.donghua-ml.com).

The proceedings first began in 2003, when battenfeld-cincinnati (Foshan) filed a suit against Donghua for product piracy, in the context of which the latter was accused of copying battenfeld-cincinnati’s PO 450 pipe extrusion line. In a 2007 ruling, the Dongguan court ruled that Donghua had unlawfully used confidential documents detailing the manufacture of the PO 450 pipe extrusion line, and subsequently ordered the company to destroy all copies of illegally obtained documents as well as equipment manufactured on the basis of information obtained unjustly. In addition, Donghua was ordered to pay a fine of RMB 500,000.

Donghua then appealed the ruling with the Guangdong Higher People’s Court, arguing that battenfeld-cincinnati’s PO pipe extrusion technology was actually public domain, and adding that it could be obtained by reverse engineering. The court eventually was swayed by battenfeld-cincinnati’s case that the technical information was unique to it and that no such process could be arrived at simply by means of reverse engineering, confirming the 2007 ruling and finding Donghua guilty of violating intellectual property rights.