Per a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on April 2, 2024, France’s Arkema S.A. sued two subsidiaries of Shanghai Huayi Group Co., Ltd. for patent infringement requesting 430 million RMB and an injunction. Arkema filed the patent litigation at the Shanghai Higher People’s Court alleging the subsidiaries infringed Chinese patents 200780034079.8 and 201210384253.4 related to processes for producing acrylic acid.

Arkema S.A. is a publicly listed, multi-national manufacturer of specialty materials, headquartered in Colombes, near Paris, France. It has three specialty materials segments (or divisions); adhesives, advanced materials and coatings. A further segment covers chemical intermediates. The company was created in 2004, as part of French oil major Total’s restructuring of its chemicals business, and floated on the Paris stock exchange in May 2006. Turnover in 2021 was €9.5 billion. 

Shanghai Huayi Group Co., Ltd. is a Shanghai-based corporation that principally engages in the manufacture of chemical products and tires. It was incorporated in 1992 and reported 40.62 billion RMB in revenue recently.

Note that Arkema and Huayi established at least one joint venture although it is unclear if this litigation relates to this as the complaint is not public.

The SSE filing is available here: SSEFiling (Chinese only).