Style Limited, represented by Style Australasia , have announced their intention to appeal a decision by China’s Patent Reexamination Board to invalidate the registered patent on their proprietary strandwoven bamboo flooring technology. This decision has no effect on Style’s recently filed strandwoven timber flooring patents that are now pending.
Style’s Chinese strandwoven bamboo patent, which has twice been upheld by Chinese courts since it was approved by the State Intellectual Property Organisation on January 7,2004, was declared invalid in a decision communicated to the company by the National Patent Reexamination Board.
The decision followed an application to Patent Reexamination Board by Yixing Yao Long, Bamboo & Wood Products, as part of their defence in an ongoing patent infringement case brought by Style Limited.
The Patent Reexamination Board refused to accept evidence submitted by Style that the terminology of relevant State Forestry Bureau standards could be used to support the company’s patent, despite the fact that those guidelines define industrial standards across the country’s bamboo manufacturing industry.
According to Peter Torreele, Chief Executive Officer, Style, they have received independent legal advice from two law firms that the ruling of the Patent Reexamination Board is incorrect on several grounds and the prior art submitted to challenge the validity of their Chinese patent is unrelated to the patent.
Style will file an appeal with the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court to overturn this decision and a successful outcome will render this prior art inadmissible for any future challenges to their Chinese patent.