At Shanghai Finc Bio-tech, we take great pride in our innovations and advancements in mushroom cultivation, particularly our patented White Shimeji Mushroom strain, which we developed and patented in 2013. Recently, we have seen the importance of intellectual property protection as our innovation was subject to patent infringement by multiple mushroom production enterprises. This case highlights the need for stringent protection of intellectual property and serves as an important milestone in the fungi biotechnology industry.

In 2013, Shanghai Finc Bio-tech Inc was granted a patent for our White Shimeji Mushroom strain, which can be propagated asexually, allowing it to be replicated without the need for traditional spore-based methods. However, due to the strain’s high demand, many mushroom production companies separated the strain and used it without authorization, resulting in significant harm to Finc Bio-tech’s rights and market interests.

To resolve this issue, the Shanghai Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee sent experts from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences to support us with technical and legal advice. These experts recommended that we adopt specific fragment detection methods combined with product morphology as the basis for determining whether patent infringement had occurred.

In 2017, Finc Bio-tech filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Tianjin Hongbin Hesheng Agricultural Technology Development Co Ltd and other companies in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. After thorough comparisons, the court confirmed that the strain being used by the infringers was indeed the same as our patented white shimeji mushroom strain.

Legal Outcome

The first-instance court ruled in favor of Finc Bio-tech, affirming that the infringing products fell within the protection scope of our patent. The court ordered the infringing companies to cease their infringement and to pay compensation for economic losses amounting to 1 million yuan ($148,792) each.

In August 2021, the Supreme People’s Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment, which confirmed that the legal protections for our patent were correctly applied. This case marks an important victory for Finc Bio-tech and sets a valuable precedent for the protection of microbial inventions in China.

Significance of the Case

This was China’s first patent infringement case involving a microbial invention, marking a significant legal and technological development in the country’s intellectual property landscape. The case clarified the decision rules for microbial preservation numbers and set the legal criteria for determining the scope of protection in similar cases. It serves as an important reference for the future trial of patent infringement cases related to microbial innovations and biotechnology.

ource: Infringement of Shanghai Finc Bio-tech’s Invention Patent, Published on: May 10, 2022

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At Finc Bio-tech, protecting our intellectual property is essential to ensuring the continued growth and success of our innovative projects. This legal victory strengthens our position as a leader in the fungi biotechnology industry and demonstrates our commitment to protecting the products that contribute to the advancement of agriculture and biotechnology globally. We will continue to defend our innovations and set new standards in sustainable mushroom cultivation.