A Chinese court has ruled in favour of Apple Inc over a design patent dispute with a domestic phone-maker, overturning a ban on selling US tech giant's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus phones in China.
In May last year, a Beijing patent regulator ordered Apple's Chinese subsidiary and a local retailer Zoomflight to stop selling iPhone 6 models, ruling that Apple violated design patents of Chinese maker Shenzhen Baili with its smartphones.
The Chinese phone-maker had lodged a complaint, claiming that the patent for the design of its mobile phone 100c was being infringed upon by the iPhone sales.
Apple and Zoomflight took the Beijing Intellectual Property Office's banning order to court.
The Beijing Intellectual Property Court yesterday revoked the ban, saying Apple and Zoomflight did not violate Shenzhen Baili's design patent for 100c phones, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.
The court ruled that the iPhone 6 had features that "completely change the effect of the entire product...And both phones are easily distinguishable in the eyes of consumers," finding Baili's claim was without legal basis.
The court ruled that the regulator did not follow due procedures in ordering the ban while there is no sufficient proof to claim the designs constitute violation of intellectual property rights.
Representatives of Beijing Intellectual Property Office and Shenzhen Baili said they would take time to decide whether to appeal against the ruling.
In another related ruling, the same court denied a request by Apple to demand stripping Shenzhen Baili of its design patent for 100c phones.
Apple first filed the request to the Patent Reexamination Board of State Intellectual Property Office. The board rejected the request, but Apple lodged a lawsuit against the rejection to court.
The Beijing Intellectual Property Court yesterday ruled to maintain the board's decision.
It remains not immediately clear if Apple will appeal.
Apple phones are popular among China's urban young people, but the sale faces stiff competition from domestic phone makers, which produce a wider range of affordable and quality smartphones.
Last year, three domestic brands -- OPPO, Huawei and Vivo -- outperformed Apple as China's top selling phone brands, according to a report by the International Data Corporation.
OPPO sold 78.4 million handsets in China last year, tailed by Huawei with 76.6 million units.
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