On May 15, 2019, the Zhejiang High People’s Court (the Appellate Court) reversed the trial court decision and found the defendant infringing the plaintiff’s Chinese Patent No. ZL 200880118796.3. The Appellate Court concluded that the term “the luggage strap . . . guided adjustably along the wall of the luggage” does not require the luggage strap to remain in contact with the wall of the luggage because the objective of the patent is to variably divide the inner space by the intermediate plate. Although the Patent Examination Guidelines (2010) state that an objective of the patent, which solves technical problems over prior art, should be in the “Background” section, the Appellate Court relied on the objective disclosed in other sections of the specification. Similarly, in Xiaoping Ren & Jie Sun v. Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) Co. (2020), the Supreme Court relied on the objective disclosed in the “summary of invention” section to exclude technical solutions that cannot achieve the objective from the scope of the claims.
