Legal victory in U.S. energizes Chinese battery makers

Tag : energizer battery

For many reasons, especially the hefty legal fees and unfamiliarsystem, a lawsuit in the United States is the last thing that mostChinese companies want to be involved in.

And when they do go to court, Chinese companies rarely win cases inthe United States. So when the Chinese Battery Industry Association (BIA) announcedlast week that its seven major members had won a five-year legalbattle against U.S.-based Energizer and its subsidiary Eveready, itmade headlines in the Chinese media.

The verdict is seen as a victory not only for battery makers butalso many other industries, since Chinese companies have been themost frequent targets of a U.S. trade complaint procedure that canresult in a blanket ban on Chinese exports of a particular productto the United States. Wang Jingzhong, the BIA's deputy secretary general, told reportersin Shanghai that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuithad on April 22 finally rejected an appeal on battery patents byEnergizer, the second-largest battery maker in the United States.

Five years ago, citing Section 337 of the U.S. 1930 Tariff Act,Energizer filed a complaint with the Washington-based U.S.International Trade Commission (ITC), a quasi-judicial agency whoserole is to determine import injury to American industries. In its complaint, Energizer asked the ITC to issue acease-and-desist order and bar 28 foreign companies from exportingand selling household-size mercury-free alkaline batteries in theUnited States, claiming that batteries from China and several othercountries had infringed on its mercury-free alkaline batterypatent. Of the 28 companies cited by Energizer, seven are from Chinesemainland, including Fujian Nanping Nanfu Battery Co. Ltd., Zhongyin(Ningbo) Battery Co. Ltd., Guangzhou Tiger Head Battery Group Co.Ltd., and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd.

Under Section 337, imported goods can't be sold in the UnitedStates if they have been determined to be violating American patentrights. This provision has affected many companies in developingcountries that hope to export products to the United States. The lawsuit caught the seven Chinese companies by surprise. Wang Jianhao, general manager of Zhongyin, dismissed Energizer'sclaim. "We had the technology to produce mercury-free alkaline batteriesback in 1993," he said.

"The Hong Kong-based Jinshan Group, which owns my company, was ableto produce alkaline batteries three years before Energizer hadbegun to apply for patents," Wang told Xinhua.