Securing high compensation for IP infringements in China: a case study on melamine

In late 2022, China’s Supreme Court presided over two prominent cases involving the patent and trade secrets of melamine, a widely used industrial compound.

These cases resulted in record-breaking compensation of ¥218 million RMB ($30.3 million) to the rights holders.

Among the plaintiffs were a Sino-foreign joint venture and a private high-tech company, and one of the defendants was a state-owned enterprise. The court’s judgment illustrated its consistent approach to ensuring equal protection for all business entities, regardless of their domestic or foreign capital ownership.

The Supreme Court’s final decision ordered the dismantling of the existing infringing melamine production system—a 100,000-tonne-per-year melamine project—until it no longer infringes the involved patent.