Two Chinese Companies Sued by American Chemical Giant

On October 9, 2024, DuPont announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Xiamen Dongseng New Materials Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries, as well as Jiangsu Qingyun New Materials Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries, for infringing on DuPont's Tyvek? brand and related intellectual property (IP).

DuPont is asking the ITC to investigate and rule on these infringement activities and to issue a general exclusion order to prohibit the importation of any infringing materials into the United States, including raw materials and any forms of downstream products.

According to reports, flash-spun nonwoven fabric (DuPont Tyvek?, also known as Tyvek?) is a high-density polyethylene material invented by DuPont in 1955 and was produced on a large scale starting in 1967. DuPont has monopolized this material for nearly 60 years. Tyvek? has been providing efficient packaging and protective material solutions across various industrial fields, including personal protective equipment (PPE), medical packaging, building envelopes, and industrial packaging and printing products. Tyvek? combines the advantages of paper, fiber, and film, offering the highest level of microbial barrier performance among breathable sterile packaging materials.

Xiamen Dongseng New Materials Co., Ltd. produced its first bundle of high-strength ultra-fine polyethylene fibers using the flash-spinning method in 2016; established a pilot production platform, applied for technical patents, and registered the "Dawnsens" brand trademark in 2017; achieved ton-level mass production in 2018; constructed a flash-spinning ultra-high-speed spinning and nonwoven fabric industrial production line in 2019 and realized commercial mass production; in 2022, Dongseng New Materials put into operation a 3,000 tons/year flash-spun nonwoven fabric production line; by May 2024, the main structure of Dongseng New Materials' industrial park Phase II was fully topped out, and it is expected that by 2025, production capacity will reach 12,000 tons/year, with a target capacity of 100,000 tons/year within 10 years.

Jiangsu Qingyun New Materials Co., Ltd. achieved a breakthrough in the overall process of flash-spun ultra-materials in 2019 and established its own brand, Kunlun? (Hypak?); in 2022, Qingyun New Materials put into operation a flash-spun ultra-material production line with a capacity of 3,000 tons; in 2023, two production lines with a capacity of 6,000 tons each were completed, making it China's first carbon-neutral integrated factory with a capacity of 15,000 tons for flash-spinning. It is reported that in April 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on the High-Quality Development of the Industrial Textile Industry," which pointed out the need to strengthen technological breakthroughs in flash-spun fabric processes and promote their application in medical packaging, protective equipment, printing products, and other areas.