Mobike wins patent infringement case

Bike-sharing company Mobike on Thursday won the patent infringement lawsuit filed by a man who claimed the QR code-scanning lock system was his invention.

At the hearing, held last month, the man surnamed Hu blamed Mobike for ripping off his invention — a system allowing motorbike owners to unlock their bikes via an exclusive QR code that was granted a patent by the State Intellectual Property Office in May last year.

Hu asked for 500,000 yuan (US$76,285) as compensation from Mobike. But on Thursday, his request was rejected by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court.

It is reasonable to apply the QR recognition technology in sharing bikes. The court added that Hu's lock invention was for motorbikes and Mobike hadn't copied his patent to transfer the technology to bicycles. 

Besides, Mobike, based its technology on Internet connection and big data technology to operate the lock system, the court said.

Mobike was set up in 2015 and made its debut in Shanghai last year. It quickly became to a key player in the city's booming bike sharing industry.