Mobike defends its lock system in court

Chinese bike-sharing giant Mobike testified in a Shanghai court on Wednesday that its technical process for unlocking the shared bikes is different from the invention of an auto parts technician surnamed Hu, who sued the company for patent infringement.

"The unlocking process of Mobike - which involves the Mobike App on users' smartphones, a cloud server and a lock controller on each bike that are all connected via wireless signal - is more complicated than the patent Hu holds," She Yifeng, attorney for the defendant Mobike (Beijing) Information Technology Co, said at the Shanghai No 3 Intermediate People's Court.

Hu said he submitted a patent application for his invention of an operating method to unlock bicycles to the State Intellectual Property Office in June 2013 and was granted a patent in May 2016.