Company That Sued Apple for iPhone 6 Patent Infringement 'Barely Exists'

Wednesday June 22, 2016 6:51 am PDT by Mitchel Broussard

Shenzhen Baili, the Chinese company that claimed the iPhone 6 violated the patent of its 100c smartphone, is reported to "barely exist" following its victory in the Beijing Intellectual Property Office against Apple.

In response to Shenzhen Baili's patent lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal investigated the company, along with its parent Digione, and found that the latter company had collapsed, "brought down by buggy products, mismanagement and fierce competition, according to former employees and investors." Digione has apparently been absent from China's mobile phone market for nearly a year.

100c iphone 6 comparison

iPhone 6 (left) and Shenzhen Baili's 100c (right)

Phone calls to the company, Shenzhen Baili Marketing Services Co., ring unanswered. Its websites have been deleted. Visits to its three registered addresses found no company offices.

Baili and its parent, Digione, are part of a rapid boom and bust in China’s new wave of smartphone makers. When Baili took on Apple in December 2014, telling Chinese regulators that the Cupertino, Calif., company’s new models infringed on its smartphone design patents, it had bold aspirations, a big-name investor in Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. and a team of experienced executives.

All the same, Shenzhen Baili is claiming to continue to battle Apple through its pending appeal process, and the company "is still operational in its necessary functions,” according to Digione lawyer Andy Yang. The company originally filed the patent infringement claim in December 2014, shortly after the launch of the iPhone 6, but the case only recently reached the court system in Beijing.

Despite its assertion to continue going after Apple in court, the financial records of Baili and its parent company reveal that both are insolvent, with debts that greatly exceed their total assets. Former employees of the company even said that the suit against Apple was "always more a marketing ploy than a serious court case."

Despite the setback, Apple has confirmed that both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have stayed on sale in China thanks to an administrative order appeal from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month.

Tag: China

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Top Rated Comments

keysofanxiety

134 months ago

As ridiculous as this is its karma for Apple. Apple was the ultimate patent troll a couple years ago.

Not in the slighest. Patent troll doesn't mean what you think it means.

Apple patented something. They have their patent granted. They release technology which utilises that patent. Other companies release products which infringe on those patents. Apple defend their patents.

Now, if you think that some of the elements shouldn't have been patented, then that's more an argument against the patent system. That's quite a big difference.

A patent troll would be a company that doesn't really exist. They make no products. They just collect patents, don't use them in any form, and then sue everyone who mildly infringes on it. They contribute nothing but throwing red tape in the courts, gunking up true innovation and actual products in the process, because they want to make a quick buck.

Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)

keysofanxiety

134 months ago

Yes thats my mistake. Nonetheless a patent for swipe to unlock? Apple has sued for some petty things, some are legit but a lot were not.

Well then why would the competitors use swipe to unlock in their products? There are many other ways to unlock a phone. A button. Swirl your finger around in a circle to unlock. Type in a passcode.

The reason they used it is because Apple thought of something really obvious, but effective. A gesture that couldn't unlock a phone accidentally when in your pocket, but which is easy and intuitive to do when you do want to unlock it.

The competitors knew that was patented. They used it anyway, because they couldn't think of anything just as effective. They hadn't thought of it before, even in its most simplistic form. So yes, I very much agree with Apple suing over that. It's not like there wasn't a different way to do it.

You might see it as something simple and natural. It's easy to say that with hindsight. Even so much as a swipe unlock had a lot of thought and time that goes into it, especially when you consider what the phone industry looked like before 2007.

Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)