AKRON—Tire-building machinery giant VMI Group has declared victory in a case involving the alleged intellectual property theft committed by a Chinese machinery manufacturer.
The Chinese Intellectual Property Office has ordered Shuangjun Plastic and Rubber Machinery Ltd. to stop manufacturing and selling machinery that violates VMI patents, and also to stop making false claims about that machinery, VMI said in a press release.
In 2014, VMI received reports that Shuangjun was making tire-building machinery that infringed on a key patent involving VMI's tire-building drum, VMI said.
VMI made a formal complaint to the IPO, which raided Shuangjun in August 2014. VMI issued a press release about the raid at that time, but did not reveal the name of the company that was raided.
“As a direct result of the raid, Shuangjun attempted to invalidate VMI's long-standing and world-recognized patents,” VMI said. “Shuangjun completely failed in the invalidation attempt as the Chinese Patent Review Board ruled against Shuangjun and upheld VMI's patent.”
VMI's worldwide patents are important in maintaining its competitive position among tire machinery manufacturers, the company said.
“VMI's strategy is to identify all significant patent infringements and respond rapidly and vigorously in every such case,” it said.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Dutch firm TKH Group N.V., VMI is the world's largest producer of tire-building machinery. It employs more than 1,200 worldwide, and has manufacturing plants in the Netherlands and China with service centers in those countries and in the U.S., Brazil, Malaysia and Russia.