Guangdong BYD Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "BYD" or “Petitioner”) filed an invalidation request to the China Patent Office to challenge a Chinese design patent ZL201330328972.X with the title "LED Street Lamp" several months ago. The patentee of the design patent is an individual named " Jun Feng." On November 7, 2023, the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Board at the China Patent Office issued an invalidation decision, ruling to “maintain the patent right valid.”

In their invalidation request, BYD submitted three Chinese patent documents as evidence (Evidence 1: CN111832596; Evidence 2: CN111832596; Evidence 3: CN111832596). BYD believed that the design patent did not have a significantly different overall visual effect compared to the following combinations: Evidence 1+Evidence 2, Evidence 1+Evidence 3, and Evidence 1+Evidence 4. Different views from the design patent and Evidence 1 are as follows:

However, in the invalidation decision, the Board held that for a three-dimensional product, its overall shape and frontal design have a greater impact on the overall visual effect. When compared with Evidence 1, the design patent has a significantly different overall shape, as well as a different arrangement of the upper and lower ends on the front side of the product and the light source module, resulting in a distinctly different overall visual effect. Meanwhile, the Board believed none of Evidence 2-Evidence 4 disclosed these distinguishing features, and thus, even if Evidence 1 is combined with other prior design features as claimed by the petitioner, the combined design cannot eliminate the differences on the overall shape and frontal design from the design patent.