Sany Barred from Selling Cranes Engineered with Manitowoc Trade Secrets

April 16, 2015 - Manitowoc Co. has won a trade case to block Sany Heavy Industry Co. and Sany America from selling certain crawler cranes and components in the U.S. market. The U.S. International Trade Commission's investigation found that Sany infringed on a Manitowoc patent and stole trade secrets, according to a notice posted by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

 

Manitowoc claimed Sany hired away its top engineer in 2010 to copy its crawler cranes. Sany Heavy denied copying any features of Manitowoc’s cranes, and says the engineer brought only his experience and not any trade secrets. It also argued that Manitowoc hadn’t established that any Sany Heavy products sold in the U.S. used Manitowoc know-how.

 

 

The trade commission sided with Manitowoc on one of the two patents in the case and on the trade secrets theft charge. It barred Sany from selling any cranes that use the trade secret information for 10 years, according to a Bloomberg news item. The import ban can be overturned by the administration of President Barack Obama on public policy grounds.