Kubota Corporation (Head Office: Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan; President and Representative Director: Yuichi Kitao; hereinafter, “Kubota”) wins a patent infringement lawsuit against China Suzhou Jiufu Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiufu").

Kubota noticed that Jiufu manufactured and sold rice transplanters with model names as "2ZS-4 (F4)" and "2ZS-6 (F6)". Kubota believes that Jiufu's above actions infringed Kubota's Chinese patent right. So in October 2017, Kubota filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court.

In November 2019, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court held that Jiufu infringed Kubota patent and entered a judgment of first instance, awarding both the injunction and the compensation for the losses of the plaintiff. After that, Jiufu appealed to the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court. On April 14, 2021, the Intellectual Property Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court entered a second-instance judgment that rejected the appeal and upheld the first-instance judgment. As a result, the winning of the patent case was finally confirmed.

According to the legally effective judgment, Jiufu is ordered to stop the production and the sale of the infringing rice transplanters with model names as "2ZS-4 (F4)" and "2ZS-6 (F6)", and to pay Kubota RMB 1.3 million for damages and reasonable expenses.

Kubota has always been carrying out business activities on the basis of respecting intellectual property rights of its own as well as other companies’. If infringement on the intellectual property rights is found, Kubota will take a firm stand to protect the rights.

Chinese patent involved: ZL200610071543.8

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