On April 1, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued Invalidation Decision No. 54983, declaring Chinese Invention Patent No. 201380036938.2 (titled “Doped Organic Semiconducting Matrix Material”, hereinafter the “patent in suit”), which is owned by Hodogaya Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., wholly invalid, thereby upholding the invalidation request filed by Wuhan Tianma Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Tianma”).
Beijing Caihe Law Firm was retained by Tianma to act as the representative of the invalidation requester in the above invalidation proceeding.
Case Highlights:
The granted claims of the patent in suit protect a semiconducting material comprising a dopant and a matrix material. In the patent application, particular emphasis was placed on the selection of the dopant, and on how the combination of dopant and matrix enhances the electrical conductivity of the semiconducting material.
During the invalidation process, however, the requester identified prior art that had already disclosed a semiconducting material containing the same dopant. Consequently, the choice of matrix became the central element distinguishing the patent in suit from the prior art. If the prior art provided a teaching or suggestion for replacing the matrix, then the claimed semiconducting material would lack inventiveness.
The critical aspect of the invalidation analysis was the assessment of inventiveness. The process requires:Identifying the prior art most closely related to the claims of the patent in suit;
Analyzing the distinguishing features between the claimed invention and that prior art;
Determining the actual technical problem solved by the invention based on the technical effects achieved by the distinguishing features;Evaluating whether the prior art contains any teaching or suggestion to apply those distinguishing features to the closest prior art in order to solve its technical problem.If such a teaching or suggestion exists in the prior art, the claim is considered to lack inventiveness.
