Beijing private entrepreneur Fan Haisheng was wrongly detained for 212 days in 2021 on charges of “alleged patent infringement.” Recently, Fan Haisheng’s lawyer has applied to the Shenyang High-tech District Court for a state compensation of over 10.298 million yuan. In addition, Fan Haisheng also requested the obligor to restore his reputation and offer a formal apology.
Fan Haisheng was formerly the legal representative of Beijing Zhongke Pujin Special Materials Technology Development Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Beijing Zhongke Pujin Company”) and now serves as the actual controller and manager of the company.
According to reports by The Paper, Fan Haisheng stated in the compensation application that his competitors had unfairly pressured him through improper means. He obtained the patent rights in question based on a contract and the validity was confirmed by the Shenyang Arbitration Commission. However, despite this, the relevant public prosecution and law enforcement agencies in Shenyang filed a case, detained him, and made an initial guilty verdict without sufficient evidence and unclear facts, severely affecting his rights as a private entrepreneur.
Fan Haisheng stated that this case directly led to the termination of cooperation with several companies in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and other places, resulting in not only significant financial losses but also missing out on substantial business opportunities and market share. In addition, his company is a major international event supplier of antibacterial tableware, and the mishandling of this case directly caused him to lose this business cooperation, resulting in significant financial losses.
Therefore, Fan Haisheng recently submitted a state compensation application to the Shenyang High-tech District Court through his lawyer, seeking compensation of over 10.298 million yuan, including 980,372.8 yuan for personal freedom compensation (calculated at the 2023 compensation standard), 200,000 yuan for mental damage consolation, and 10 million yuan for property loss. In addition, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the “State Compensation Law,” Fan Haisheng also requested the obligor to eliminate the impact, restore his reputation, and offer a formal apology.
According to reports, the patent involved in this infringement case is the invention patent of “Austenitic Antibacterial Stainless Steel” owned by the Institute of Metal, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Patent No.: ZL02144683.0).
In 2013, the Institute of Metal, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Fan Haisheng’s Beijing Zhongke Pujin Company signed a cooperation agreement authorizing his company to implement the patent. Subsequently, Shenyang Rongrong Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Shenyang Rongrong Company) also obtained the implementation license of the patent in 2017. As a result, the two companies became competitors.
On May 22, 2020, the head of Shenyang Rongrong Company reported to the police that Fan Haisheng, the legal representative of Beijing Zhongke Pujin Company, was suspected of patent infringement. On March 25, 2021, the Shenyang police arrested Fan Haisheng in Beijing.
After being arrested, Fan Haisheng repeatedly requested the Shenyang High-tech District Procuratorate to review the necessity of his detention, but the procuratorate continued to detain him on the grounds of his refusal to plead guilty. It was not until October 22, 2021, that Fan Haisheng was granted bail pending trial by the Shenyang High-tech District Court. On December 28, 2021, the Shenyang High-tech District Court found Fan Haisheng guilty in the first instance and imposed a fine of 350,000 yuan. Fan Haisheng appealed.
On July 24, 2023, the Shenyang Intermediate Court sent the case back for retrial citing that “the facts about the defendant Fan Haisheng committing patent infringement in the original judgment were not clear.” On July 24, 2024, the Shenyang High-tech District Procuratorate decided not to prosecute Fan Haisheng for reasons of “not meeting the conditions for prosecution.”
Thus, this more than four-year-long patent infringement case finally came to an end, but Fan Haisheng lost over 200 days of his personal freedom during the process.
Fan Haisheng’s defense lawyer criticized this case as a criminal intervention in a civil dispute and an infringement of the rights of private entrepreneurs.