Representing FMC, a leading global agricultural science company, GEN recently won the First Instance patent infringement case against Hangzhou UDRAGON Chemical Co. and Zhejiang UDRAGON Biotechnology Co. ("Yulong Co." in combination) at Hangzhou's Intermediate People's Court. Yulong did not appeal, and the judgment is now in effect.  The patent involves a key intermediate compound used to produce the insecticide's active component Chlorantraniliprole.  The court decided that Yulong infringed FMC's patent by producing the intermediate compound in question and using it to produce Yulong's products for testing, participating in exhibitions, and providing samples to third parties.  The court ruled Yulong to stop their infringement and compensate FMC's losses.

This case is one of the few infringement cases involving patents on pesticide intermediates.  The court determined that pesticide intermediates are not drugs or medical devices and that Yulong continued to conduct field tests on "Yulong 366" after the expiration date of the "Pesticide Field Test Approval Certificate".  "Yulong 366" was also displayed in exhibitions and its samples were provided to the public. These acts "obviously exceeded the scope of administrative approval" and their purposes for "production and operation" does not apply to the Bola exception. In addition, this case also applied the shift of Burden of Proof.  This greatly reduced the burden of proof and the difficulty of defending the rights of the intermediate's patent owners. This case is an important guidance for trials of similar cases.  Our team developed a comprehensive and professional patent litigation investigation of evidence collection and litigation strategy for FMC, and ultimately assisted FMC in achieving this significant win.