The Supreme People’s Court of China issues a judgment which finds that a patent settlement agreement constitutes a horizontal monopoly agreement in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law (Huaming / Taipu)

The Supreme People's Court of China ('SPC') issued a judgment on 21 March 2022 which found that a patent settlement between Shanghai Huaming Power Equipment Manufacturing ('Huaming') and Wuhan Taipu Transformer Switch ('Taipu') constituted a horizontal monopoly agreement in violation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law ('AML'). Key takeaways Article 13 of the AML prohibits horizontal monopoly agreement among competing undertakings, including (among others) agreements that fix prices, limit production or sales volumes; and divide or segments sales markets (e.g., by geography, product or customer type).Pursuant to Article 55 of the AML, a right holder that oversteps the boundaries in exerting its exclusive intellectual property rights and abuses those rights in a manner that eliminate or