Shenzhen Carku strives for legal rights in the us market,USITC judge issued the initial determination that Carku has won the

In January 2021, the NOCO company in the U.S. filed a complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in Washington DC requesting for a Section 337 investigation on the jump starter industry for patent infringement of NOCO patents.The investigation, ITC-337-TA-1256, involves two NOCO patents of the same patent family, U.S. 9,007,015 (“the '015 patent”) and 10,604,024 (“the '024 patent”).  NOCO initially sued 110 companies involved in emergency car jump starter products, but later withdrawal the charge against 65 companies before the ITC instituted the investigation in March of 2021.  The ITC investigation proceeded with 45 accused companies, including Shenzhen Carku Technology Co., Ltd. and 12 other Chinese companies.

It is reported that before the institution of the 337 investigation, Shenzhen Carku launched an inter partes review (IPR) administrative trial proceeding challenging the validity of NOCO’s 015 patent in the US Patent Office Court PTAB in May 2020.  In November of 2021, Shenzhen Carku successfully obtained the final written decision from the PTAB that  22 claims of the 015 patent are invalid. NOCO subsequently withdrew its assertion of patent infringement of the 015 patent in the 337 case.

In the ITC Section 337 investigation, Shenzhen Carku, represented by a litigation beam from U.S. law firm of Perkins Coie LLP, was the leading respondent of the 45 respondents in the ITC trial and provided abundant evidence, expert testimonies and other significant materials refuting NOCO’s allegations.After exchange of motions and evidence and a 4-day hearing in court, the ITC judge made an Initial determination on April 29, 2022 finding that accused CARKU emergency car jump starter products do not infringe NOCO's 024 patent.In addition, based on analyses and evidence solely presented to the ITC court by Shenzhen Carku, the ITC judge ruled that NOCO failed to establish the technical prong of the domestic industry requirement under Section 337, resulting in a ruling of no violation for multiple other respondents, including defaulting respondents and other respondents found to infringe the remaining 024 patent. Based on the above two independent grounds, the ITC judge ruled that the accused jump starter products by Shenzhen Carku and its U.S. partners do not violate Section 337. Shenzhen Carku has set an example for Chinese and international emergency car jump starter companies to independently develop advanced technology products and lawfully compete in the international marketplace.

In addition to obtaining the favorable initial determination at the USTIC, a German court also determined that Carku products accused by NOCO for patent infringement do not infringe NOCO's asserted German patent in the first instance. Furthermore, Shenzhen Carku also launched forceful defenses and counterattacks against NOCO in other courts in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, and China.

337 Investigation

337 investigation refers to the investigation conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in accordance with Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 and related amendments regarding illegal and unfair competition in the US market. "Section 337" expressly authorizes the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate and impose sanctions on unequal trade practices in imported batteries under the premise of prosecution by U.S. companies. If relevant laws and regulations are violated, the ITC can decide and instruct U.S. Customs to prohibit the importation of the infringing product.

As Chinese enterprises increase their presence in international markets, there are more and more international intellectual property disputes with Chinese enterprises such as 337 investigations. In recent years, many Chinese companies failed to successfully defend themselves before the ITC, placing China as a region in Asia with the most losses in legal battles before the ITC.Shenzhen Carku diligently deployed its defenses in the Section investigation (337-TA-1256), forcefully fought against NOCO before the ITC and demonstrated the potential for achieving successful legal battles for Chinese enterprises to secure their legal rights in the international markets,. Shenzhen Carku focuses on its own technological innovations and makes significant efforts to legally complete inboth domestic and international markets legally. Carku was not intimidated by NOCO's aggressive actions of patent infringement and confronted NOCO according to the laws and legal processes in the international markets, and took the initiative to use the unique administrative IPR proceeding at the PTAB in the United States to confront NOCO, thus ushering in the initial legal victories in the U.S.  and German courts.

Because some Chinese companies are not yet familiar with the U.S. Section 337 investigation procedures and litigation judicial procedures and their consequences, and are concerned about the high costs of hiring foreign lawyers in the millions of dollars in litigation, such Chinese companies usually have a negative attitude towards defending themselves in the Section 337 investigation. But if accused Chinese companies don't respond proactively and defend themselves in court, the consequences can be dire - any product found to infringe intellectual property rights will be banned from importing and selling in the United States. Once a general exclusion order is issued by the ITC, in addition to the respondent's related products, other similar products may also be prohibited from entering the United States.

History of Patent Disputes in Jump Starter Market

According to the survey results, the emergency car jump starter sector is a new technology industry developed in the past ten years, with an annual global output of 15 million units and an estimated output value of around US$1 billion. Shenzhen Carku is an enterprise that focus on technical innovations, a leader in the worldwide emergency car jump starter industry, and an active participant in the standard setting for the emergency car jump starter industry in worldwide DSLI Lithium Jump Starter Inventor、Committee of drafting Jump Starter Industry Standard in China、National-level specialized and special new "little giant" enterprise、Guangdong province enterprise of observing contact and valuing credit.Carku's car jump starter accounts for about 20% of the worldwide shipments.

The NOCO Company sought for cooperation with CARKU in early 2014 and made a trip from the United States to visit Shenzhen CARKU headquarters in Shenzhen.After NOCO obtained samples and technology from CARKU Company, NOCO applied for the PCT patent of the 015 patent in July 2014. From this point of view, NOCO undoubtedly has major problems in the patent application process. Although it is difficult to obtain evidence of conclusive plagiarism,but in the US PATB judgment, the judge also determined that NOCO obtained a lot of information from CARKU during the patent application process.

After the 337 investigation initiated by NOCO, in order to regulate the development of the industry, prevent NOCO from monopolizing the industry, and stimulate domestic enterprises to attach importance to and protect intellectual property rights. Charles LEI, President of CARKU, contacted lawyers Bing Ai and Kevin Patariu of Perkins Coie LLP for the first time to actively respond to the lawsuit,even at the cost of millions of dollars and took 18 months to mediate and entangle with NOCO, and finally launched a strong counterattack against NOCO in the US and other North American and European courts.

Influence

The scale of the 337 investigation is very large, involving more than 100 domestic and foreign companies, creating the single case with the largest number of companies involved in the history of 337.Once the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that CARKU violates Section 337, all products of our domestic counterparts will be banned from exporting to the United States, and will completely lose their market qualifications in the United States. CARKU took the initiative to play the role of an industry leader and actively responded to this lawsuit,and developed invalidity evidence against NOCO's core patents. Carku prove that the NOCO's patent doesn’t meet the requirements of the domestic technology industry.Thus liberating all domestic counterparts who suffered from "337".It paves the way for domestic emergency car jump starter counterparts to open up overseas markets, provides an important boost for consolidating market order and competition, and fully demonstrates the strength of Chinese enterprises in overseas trade. The victory of the 337 case is significant and Profound good news for Carku and our national enterprises, which encourages every industry to pay attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, and have the courage to use international laws and legal processes to defend legal rights in the international markets .

By the way, it doesn’t mean all Car Jump Starter manufacturers are exempt from infringement while still some manufacturers that are infringing. so you should be very cautious with choosing cooperative Car Jump Starter suppliers.

For the 337 victory link, please check: https://edis.usitc.gov/external/search/document/771159