Shenzhen Baili Marketing Services Co., the company behind the patent lawsuit that threatened to halt iPhone sales in China, has proven very difficult to locate, according to the Wall Street Journal, who launched an investigation to pull back the curtain.
The Journal found that there were no offices at any of Shenzhen Baili’s registered addresses, all of its websites were defunct and no phone calls to the firm were answered. The newspaper also points out when Shenzhen Baili first sued Apple in 2014, it had “bold aspirations, a big-name investor in Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. and a team of experienced executives.”
But, it also reported that Shenzhen Baili is a subsidiary of Digione, a company that has been missing from the Chinese smartphone market for a year and that, the Wall Street Journal says, was “brought down by buggy products, mismanagement and fierce competition, according to former employees and investors.”
Digione lawyer Andy Yang told the Journal Shenzhen Baili “is still operational in its necessary functions.”
Apple has still been able to sell iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices in China despite the patent board ruling, thanks to an administrative order appeal.
