Whirlpool Company wins everlasting injunction in patent swimsuit in opposition to Chinese language water filter producer – IPWatchdog.com

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Gavel closeupOn February sixteenth, Decide Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Texas (E.D. Tex.) entered a consent judgment and a everlasting injunction in a patent infringement case concentrating on substitute water filters marketed in the US. The order for everlasting injunction represents a victory for Benton Harbor, MI-based dwelling equipment developer Whirlpool Company (NYSE:WHR) in taking up makers of substitute filter makers in courtroom.

The official criticism in Whirlpool Company v. Wei et. al. was filed in March 2016. The defendants within the case handle enterprise operations for Tianjin Jinghai Yunda Business and Commerce Co., a Chinese language producer of water purification and remedy methods. In its swimsuit in opposition to Yunda, Whirlpool asserted a collection of 4 utility patents and 5 design patents. Included among the many utility patents are:

  • U.S. Patent No. 7000894, titled Fluidic Cartridges and Finish Items Thereof. It claims an finish piece for operatively participating a head meeting which has valves, the top piece additional having the ability to deal with and management fluid passing via the top meeting.
  • U.S. Patent No. 8356716, titled Filter Unit. It discloses a filter unit with a considerably cylindrical physique and a novel engagement protrusion for interfacing with a complementary head meeting.
  • U.S. Patent No. 8413818, identical title because the ‘716 patent. It discloses an analogous cylindrical filter with means for safe engagement of the filter media.
  • U.S. Patent No. 8591736, titled Water Filter Unit. It claims a filter unit with keyed options for interfacing with engagement options on a filter head meeting in a means that creates a good and safe engagement of the filter unit.

Whirlpool’s allegations included the net advertising and sale of substitute water filters via a web site operated by Yunda in addition to different web sites hosted by Alibaba.com. Efforts to market the infringing substitute water filter merchandise embody a number of exhibitions on the annual Water High quality Affiliation Conference in addition to the distribution of wholesale pricing catalogs to folks within the U.S. Screenshots of Yunda’s on-line advertising present that the substitute filters are marketed as replacements for Whirlpool’s filter merchandise.

In its case, Whirlpool efficiently argued that it might be irreparably harmed with out the aid of everlasting injunction along with the settlement settlement, which is executed individually of the courtroom order. The latest courtroom order for everlasting injunction additionally affirmed the validity of all 4 utility patents asserted within the case together with discovering that the defendant’s importation and sale of substitute water filters infringed on claims coated by the patents-in-suit.

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