U.S. International Trade Commission Confirms: Termination Of Patent Infringement Investigation Filed By Ouster Against WoSai

On October 12, 2023, global LIDAR leader Hosai Technology announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has confirmed the termination of the patent infringement investigation filed by Ouster against Hosai.
The following is the latest official statement issued by Ouster in response to this patent infringement investigation:
On October 10, 2023, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a decision terminating the patent infringement investigation (the "ITC Proceeding") brought by Ouster, a fellow competitor of Hershey's, upholding the initial decision of the ITC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of August 24, 2023, and granted WoSai's motion to terminate the ITC Litigation.
WoSai has consistently maintained that all of Ouster's allegations of intellectual property infringement are baseless. Ouster's LIDAR products are the result of years of self-research and independent development by the company, and there has been no theft of intellectual property rights, and Ouster's lawsuit against Ouster is wrongful because it violates the patent cross-license agreement previously entered into between its merged company, Velodyne, and Ouster, which is also binding on the merged company, Ouster/Velodyne. Ouster's contention that it was not bound by the prior patent cross-license agreement is neither legal nor moral. WoS was in full compliance with that agreement, while Ouster sought to avoid its legal obligations.
In addition, in previous public statements, Ouster has made unfounded allegations about Hershey's legitimate actions in defense of its legal rights. Ouster has always acted in an ethical manner in the LIDAR market. Under the terms of the prior agreement, disputes were to be resolved through arbitration, not in court or at the ITC, and therefore the ITC Commission terminated the lawsuit filed by Ouster.Ouster's assertion that WoSai avoided substantive adjudication of the case by filing a motion to terminate the ITC proceeding is irresponsible and misleading to the public.The ITC Commission's affirmance of its initial ruling to terminate the lawsuit demonstrates that WoSai's The ITC Commission's affirmance of the initial termination ruling demonstrates that Woesser's motion is legally sufficient and that Ouster's claims are nothing more than baseless allegations by a company with no spirit of contract. Ouster was confident that the dispute could be resolved through arbitration, as the arbitration body would have heard the same legal issues arising out of the license agreement, and the ITC ultimately sided with Ouster in this legal matter.
According to the latest report released by Yole Intelligence, an authoritative international research organization, Hershey is the market leader in the L4 autonomous driving LiDAR market with a 67% market share by 2022. This leadership position is not due to low price, but from the performance and quality better than competitors. In fact, Hershey's LiDAR is priced higher than almost all competitors, but customers continue to favor Hershey's products for their superior performance and quality, especially in critical environments where safety is paramount. For example, in the emerging Advanced Driving Assistance for Passenger Vehicles (ADAS) LiDAR market, some of Hershey's competitors received program placements from top global automakers (OEMs) during 2017-2018, but have so far failed to deliver mass-produced LiDARs to their OEM customers. In contrast, Hosai became the first manufacturer to deliver high-performance ADAS LiDAR to the market in high volume, delivering more than 60,000 units of ADAS LiDAR in 2022 and expecting to deliver approximately 190,000 to 200,000 units of ADAS LiDAR in 2023, which stems from Hosai's unrelenting pursuit of innovation, performance and high quality.
Hershey highly values and respects valid and enforceable intellectual property rights and will continue to defend itself against any allegations of impropriety or lack of merit.
Previous Review
On April 12 of this year, Ouster, a publicly traded LiDAR company headquartered in San Francisco, announced on its website that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Hesai Technology and related entities headquartered in Shanghai, China, requesting the ITC to initiate a 337 investigation against the latter.
In addition, Ouster filed a corresponding patent infringement lawsuit against Hesai in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, seeking an injunction against the importation of products and monetary damages.
On May 11, the ITC indicated that it was investigating certain LiDAR systems and their components under Section 337 and targeted the following affiliated respondents (listed defendants):
Hesai Group of Shanghai, China;
Hesai Technology Co. of Shanghai, China.
Hesai Inc. of Palo Alto, CA.
Ouster accused Hesai of infringing five U.S. patents, and the ITC said at the time that it would make a final decision on the investigation at the earliest practicable time.
The ITC's confirmation of the termination of Ouster's patent infringement investigation against Hershey is a key turnaround. Specific case developments can be found in the ITC's latest official statement document.