Inoes and Sinopec will reach an amicable agreement on the dispute they have for the unlicensed technology owned by Inoes, the Chairman of Inoes Jim Ratcliffe said. The dispute has been kept unsolved for a long time.
In 2014, Inoes sued Sinopec and a number of its subsidiaries for the misuse of the technology for production of acrylonitrile in Beijing High Court. Ningbo Engineering Company, which is affiliated to Sinopec broke the trade contract and misused the technology of Inoes by consenting other Sinopec companies to produce acrylonitrile without the license of Inoes. Acrylonitrile is an important raw material for synthetic fiber, plastic and rubber, which would bring business valued at about $ 3 billion per year. This break may bring harm to the acrylonitrile markets which generates a considerable revenue for Inoes and connects with about 5000 direct and indirect workers in US and Europe.
Initially, Sinopec denied that they had violated the intellectual property rights of Inoes. After a suitcase crossing about one year, the dispute will end in an peaceful way and there will be more cooperation between the two parts in the market of China.
However, much worse is that the unsolved dispute has influenced the phenol project business of Inoes in China. In the year of 2013, Inoes has signed a preliminary contract with Yangzi Petrochemical Company (a subsidiary of Sinopec ) to form the largest phenol plant in China. The breaking ceremony of the program was held in 2013 and it’s projected to be finished and put into use by the end of 2016. The dispute has made this project hold on for a period.
With the peaceful agreement reached on the unlicensed technology misuse issue, Inoes is making progress on another joint venture project which is also projected to be done and put into production in 2016.
All in all, the ending of the intellectual property right violation issue will boost an more friendly international cooperation environment and will also plant equality deeply into nowadays business principles. And the most important thing is that Inoes can continue its business expansion in China where lying a huge market for its intellectual property.