Persistent Lawsuits between Gree and Aux

 air-conditioning

Gree Electric Appliances (Gree) released a report against Aux Air Conditioner (Aux) over product quality claims. The State Administration for Market Regulation announced a probe later on.

On the same day, Aux stated, “Gree is neither a customer nor a state market regulator. Its claim is unreasonable and baseless. As the peak season for air conditioner is approaching, Gree is clearly resorting to unfair competition by smearing its largest counterpart.”

Actually, Gree and Aux are rivalries who have been at loggerheads for a long time. The two companies have lots of patent disputes before the recent report incident.

According to a civil adjudication of the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong on April 17, 2017, Gree sued Aux for manufacturing and selling infringing products of its ZL20122008××××.1 patent. Gree asked Aux to stop infringing and pay 3 million Yuan,  though the litigation was dismissed in the end.

It is reported that Gree filed a lawsuit against Aux alleging the Athena air conditioner of Aux infringed its patent and claimed for 110 million Yuan in 2017.

On April 24, 2018, the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court ruled that Aux infringed Gree’s utility model patent. Aux must stop selling the eight infringed models and compensate 40 million Yuan for economic loss. The court concluded two more cases on the same day in which Aux was recognized as infringement and should pay 6 million Yuan.

The Xinhua News Agency reported on December 14, 2018 that there was another case concerning the two companies about patent infringement.

It remains unclear whether Gree reported Aux’s defective products this time is out of past resentment or not.

July 2, 2019

Source: The Paper.cn

Photo from: 6199pic.com

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