Chinese electronic component maker Sunlord Electronics has secured another significant victory against Japanese rival Murata Manufacturing Co, with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court permitting Murata to withdraw one of three pending patent infringement lawsuits, according to a stock exchange filing on March 20.

Sunlord announced in the filing that it received a civil ruling from the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court on March 18, 2026, permitting Murata to withdraw case number (2025) Hu 73 Zhi Min Chu No. 277. The court ordered Murata to pay 25 yuan ($3.45) in court costs. Two other cases – (2025) Hu 73 Zhi Min Chu No. 278 and No. 279 – remain pending before the same court, Sunlord said.

The legal battle dates to August 2024, when Murata filed five patent infringement lawsuits against Sunlord at the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. Murata alleged that Sunlord infringed five of its electronic component patents covering inductors and coil parts – core technologies used in smartphones, electric vehicles and industrial equipment.

Rather than passively defending against the lawsuits, Sunlord responded by filing invalidation challenges against Murata's patents at the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) – a strategy that proved decisive. By early 2025, CNIPA had declared one of Murata's patents wholly invalid and two others partially invalid, significantly weakening Murata's legal offensive. Between March and November 2025, Murata withdrew all five lawsuits it had filed in August 2024.

Despite these setbacks, Murata did not abandon its legal efforts. In November 2025, it filed three new patent infringement lawsuits against Sunlord: case numbers (2025) Hu 73 Zhi Min Chu No. 277, 278 and 279, involving the same three patents used in its 2024 litigation. Sunlord responded by launching a second round of invalidation challenges. The results were decisive. On February 27, 2026, CNIPA declared patent ZL201811351471.1 wholly invalid. On March 19, 2026, patent ZL201310020785.4 was also declared wholly invalid. A third patent, ZL201610108687.X, was partially invalidated on February 7, 2026. The wholesale invalidation of ZL201811351471.1 directly led to Murata's withdrawal of case No. 277 on March 18, 2026.

Sunlord has also taken the offensive on a separate legal front. On February 9, 2026, the company announced it had formally filed a lawsuit against Murata on grounds of "disputes over liability for damages caused by malicious initiation of intellectual property litigation," seeking 1.5 million yuan ($207,000) in damages and demanding that Murata publish apology statements on its website and in public media outlets including China Intellectual Property News and Japan's Asahi Shimbun. This is Sunlord's second malicious prosecution counterclaim; in December 2025, the company filed a similar claim against Murata regarding another lawsuit.

Two infringement cases – (2025) Hu 73 Zhi Min Chu No. 278 and No. 279 – remain pending. However, the patent underlying case No. 278 was declared wholly invalid on March 19, 2026, suggesting that case may also be withdrawn in the coming weeks.