Apple is no stranger to patent battles. Indeed, they are pretty commonplace to the smartphone giant as other companies seem to absolutely love taking it to court over one reason or the other. However, it is certain to be a relief when it wins one. After all, there is no knowing when a patent dispute blows out of the proportion and the company ends up playing millions or even billions of dollars. And its your cue to be extra careful when you are talking about a dispute in China, against a domestic company. On Friday, a Beijing court overturned a ruling that stipulated that Apple had violated design patents with the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus models.
At the other end of the case was Shenzhen Baili, a Chinese company that claimed that the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus were copies of its 100C smartphones. Okay, so if it was a well-established company that was making the claims say Samsung, it would be a much more serious matter. Shenzhen on the other hand is now defunct and even at the time of making the allegations, was hardly what you would call a huge name in business. Indeed, the 100C phones that it claimed were the inspiration for the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, were harder to find than an Alice fallen down into the rabbit hole.
Strangely enough, Apple was actually told to stop selling its iPhones in Beijing and was even handed an injunction. However, the company appealed and managed to that decision suspended until a review by the courts. The injunction was hardly noticed out in the markets and anyways, Apple was already switching to the iPhone 7 at the time when this took place.
Meanwhile, the decision is pretty awesome. We don’t have anything against Shenzhen, nor do we specifically endorse Apple. However, this ruling shows that the way Chinese courts have been vilified for always favoring domestic companies, may just be a bit exaggerated.
Shenzhen has said that it will file an appeal. Since Apple has moved on to 7 since, even a temporary injunction will hardly matter to it anymore. The Chinese company could well give up the case as lost and start minding its own affairs now.
