French carmaker Citro?n has sued Sweden-based electric car brand Polestar for allegedly using a boomerang trademark similar to its own.

The "DS" brand of Citro?n Automobile Company uses the boomerang style. Judging from the Polestar brand's car logo, it is composed of two boomerangs.

Therefore, Citro?n had already filed the lawsuit as early as July 2019. Citro?n believed that the other party had infringed on its trademark rights in France.

After more than a year of judgment, the court ruled that the Polestar brand cannot use its logo in France for at least six months and will be fined 150,000 euros (approximately RMB 1.17 million). As a result, the Polestar brand, which is not yet sold in France, closed its French website.

The left side of the picture above is DS, and the right side is Polestar. The two logos do have similarities in design, but if Polestar is said to be infringing, I believe many people will not I think so, because the designs of the two logos are still very different. Polestar's logo design is flatter, while DS's logo is very three-dimensional, has a metallic luster, and is more artistic.

Then why are the two logos with such huge differences considered infringement?

I think DS’s main consideration is the future, because a brand’s logo is certainly not static. For example, for world-renowned car brands, whether it is Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or other brands, the logo will change with time. With the development of time, aesthetic orientation gradually changes. In the future, flatness will be the direction of car logo development. It is not ruled out that DS will also develop in a flat direction. If DS becomes flat, it will be very similar to the logo of Polestar, and Polestar is a 2017 A brand that was only established in 2008, it used a more modern, flat logo when it was founded, so DS now needs to build its own moat through legal means.

Secondly, DS sued Polestar for logo infringement through legal means, also to seize the opportunity, because if the DS logo is flattened in the future, it will no longer be Polestar that infringes. (Polestar) It’s DS.

The lawsuit between the two brands over their logos actually has nothing to do with the models, and the models of the two brands do not even conflict.

DS was born very early, then disappeared for a while and returned again in 2010. The main product direction is the perfect integration of fashion, luxury and sophistication.

The Polestar brand is a design-driven high-performance electric vehicle brand jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Therefore, the two brands are currently incompatible with each other. However, the DS brand will definitely have new energy vehicles in the future. If DS also launches a new energy vehicle, it will probably compete with the Polestar brand.

Although the Polestar brand is currently restricted to France and cannot use its logo for at least six months, with a fine of 150,000 euros (approximately RMB 1.17 million). The penalties are not very big. But in fact, it is also a good revelation for our independent brands, because independent brands will definitely go global in the future. When independent brands go overseas, they will definitely face various so-called "infringement" issues. Sometimes we cannot wait until our opponent sues before we defend. We must also be prepared to take the initiative to attack. Currently, the Polestar brand is not sold in France, but this is not a big obstacle for Polestar to enter the French market.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.