Sinovel Wind Group Co, China’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines and world’s second largest by newly installed capacity, denied Thursday a media report that the company was being sued by its Brazilian client Desenvix over allegations that Sinovel stole software codes from a US company, calling the media coverage a “vicious incident”.

“We read the reports this morning and checked with our Brazilian client about the reported legal move. So far, the client orally confirmed with us they had never filed such a legal action,” a spokesperson at Shanghai-listed Sinovel who declined to be named told the Global Times Thursday.

According to the spokesperson, due to the time difference between China and Brazil, Sinovel is due to receive a written statement from Desenvix Friday to clarify the matter.

Desenvix, the Brazilian power company, has filed a court case against Sinovel in a court in Brazil to order the Chinese company to provide the software code embedded in 23 turbines it purchased last year, Financial Times (FT) reported Wednesday.

Desenvix said it believed the software codes may have been stolen from AMSC, the US components manufacturer, the report said.

AMSC has already launched legal action against Sinovel, previously AMSC’s largest customer, in two Chinese courts over the alleged intellectual property rights infringement.

In April, the Higher People’s Court of Hainan Province upheld a ruling by a court of the province which rejected AMSC’s charge against Sinovel, according to a statement by Sinovel posted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

AMSC had appealed to China’s Supreme People’s Court to overturn the ruling by Hainan Higher People’s Court, FT reported in April.

Sinovel’s spokesperson declined to comment on the latest development in the dispute with AMSC.

In FT’s report Wednesday, AMSC filed a court case in Brazil against Desenvix earlier this year, requesting to investigate turbines imported by Desenvix, prompting Desenvix to launch its own legal action against Sinovel.

Both AMSC and Desenvix could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Sinovel’s latest case came after the US Commerce Department determined Friday that Chinese wind tower makers had dumped their products in the US at prices below fair value. It levied anti-dumping tariffs of 26.25 percent on Sinovel.

“It is inevitable some technologies in the same industry may be overlapping and identical. Companies like Sinovel, which has become the top manufacturer in the industry, are more likely to be targeted,” Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

“The increasing number of lawsuits and trade disputes against Sinovel indicates Chinese companies should not rely too much on the international markets but should instead explore domestic markets to avoid excessive capacity,” he said.

By Song Shengxia