French industrial giant Schneider Electric agreed to pay 150 million yuan (HK$170.15 million) to settle a patent infringement case with China's Chint Group yesterday, ending an intellectual property rights dispute between the companies.
Schneider and Chint reached an agreement before the Zhejiang Higher People's Court gave a verdict, a court spokesman said yesterday.
'It was a happy ending,' said the spokesman.
In 2006, Wenzhou-based Chint sued Schneider Electric Low Voltage (Tianjin) to the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court, claiming the French company's Chinese venture had infringed on Chint's patents.
In 2007, the lower court ordered Schneider to pay 335 million yuan as compensation, the biggest such award on the mainland.
The verdict sparked a wave of criticism on China's investment climate as foreign companies questioned the fairness of local courts' rulings on patent disputes.