China’s Supreme People’s Court has found that two patent lawsuits brought against Unitree Robotics over its Go2 and A2 robot dogs constituted malicious litigation. The cases concerned a patent titled “An Electronic Dog,” with the court ultimately rejecting the plaintiff’s infringement claims.
The plaintiff, Luweimei Company, obtained the patent only five days before filing the first lawsuit against Unitree. It initially sought RMB500 in compensation, later requested RMB80 million during the appeal process and then reverted to RMB500. China’s patent authority invalidated the patent on March 12.
Unitree’s counterclaim in the A2 case was upheld, with Luweimei ordered to pay RMB80,000 in reasonable legal costs and RMB3,700 in court fees. [Xinhua, in Chinese]