Japan’s Toyota and Geely: an impossible lawsuit

The trademark dispute between Toyota and Geely is actually the beginning of the intellectual property litigation crisis in China’s automobile industry. This is the first in the automotive field. Foreign-related intellectual property lawsuits. Geely is China's first private enterprise to produce cars. It was from here that China's automobile industry began its "war to defend local intellectual property rights."

In December 2002, Toyota filed a lawsuit against Geely on the grounds of "trademark and unfair competition infringement" and included Zhejiang Geely Automobile Co., Ltd., Beijing Lianchuang Automobile Trading Co., Ltd., and Beijing Yachen Weiye Auto Sales Center also sued the court, claiming that Geely had infringed Toyota's intellectual property rights.

Toyota said that since May 2000, Geely Automobile Company has used car logos on the front covers, tires, steering wheels, vehicle trunks and other prominent positions of the American and Japanese cars owned by Geely Group that resemble Toyota cars. The registered trademark in the shape of a "cow head" misleads consumers and infringes upon Toyota's trademark rights. At the same time, Toyota Japan also believes that Beijing Lianchuang Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yachen Weiye Automobile Sales Center violated their good faith by using the slogans "Toyota Power, Attractive Prices" and "Using Toyota 8A Engine" in their external advertising. In principle, it is an act of unfair competition.

Based on Geely’s sales volume of 23,200 vehicles and profit margin of 1 when it was sued, Toyota calculated that Geely should compensate RMB 13.92 million. Including attorney fees, Toyota claimed a total of RMB 14.07 million, requiring Geely to compensate RMB 14 million. .

Geely convened a "symposium on the protection of national intellectual property rights" at the right time, carried the national flag, and declared that "Geely Group will fight for the Chinese automobile industry", making its tall image shine immediately , Li Shufu suddenly became the embodiment of a national hero, arousing the patriotic enthusiasm of people across the country to protect national industries.

Some media believe, “For multinational automobile giants who are eager to completely occupy the Chinese market, local companies such as Geely and Chery, which are still weak today, are stumbling blocks that prevent them from encroaching on the Chinese market. In spite of desperation, knowledge Property rights have become a bargaining chip for foreign auto companies to suppress domestic auto companies, and the ambition of multinational giants to dominate the Chinese auto market is clearly revealed."

At the professional appraisal meeting attended by famous Chinese legal professionals, the experts made a credible conclusion after careful deliberation and comparison that "the Geely Meiri Automobile trademark and the Toyota trademark cannot be confused by consumers." conclusion. As soon as this conclusion came out, Toyota immediately felt that it had no confidence in winning the lawsuit, so at the first court hearing in August, Toyota conceded that as long as Geely stopped using the suspected infringing trademarks and promotional terms, Toyota would withdraw the lawsuit and give up all claims.

At the end of 2003, the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court rejected Toyota's lawsuit in the first instance. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court held after the trial that "cars are high-priced commodities, and consumers generally have to think carefully before buying them. Therefore, they have a strong ability to identify cars of different brands." The plaintiff's Toyota graphic registered trademark and Geely's Through isolated observation and comparison of the American and Japanese graphic trademarks used by the company, based on the general attention of the relevant public mentioned above, it can be judged that there is a large visual difference between the two, and the relevant public will not confuse or misunderstand the two. Therefore, the court ruled that Geely’s use of the American and Japanese graphic trademarks did not constitute an infringement of the plaintiff’s exclusive right to register a trademark.

Geely used the words 'Toyota' and 'TOYOTA' as well as the words 'Toyota power with attractive price' and 'equipped with Japan's TOYOTA8AFE four-cylinder electronic injection engine' when promoting the US and Japanese cars involved in the case, and also used the words 'TOYOTA' in its products The use of the words 'Produced by Toyota Motor Corporation' in the instruction manual contains a certain amount of exaggeration, but it has not yet reached the level of misleading false propaganda on the performance and use of the product as stipulated in our country's laws, and the relevant public will not misunderstand it. American and Japanese automobile engines are manufactured in Japan, and the technology of the 8A engine actually comes from Toyota Co., Ltd. This behavior will not have an adverse impact on the brand reputation of Toyota Motor Corporation. The above behavior of Geely does not constitute unfair competition. ”

So far, Toyota’s lawsuit against Geely has ended in failure. This has set the tone for the overall failure of foreign companies in China’s automobile industry in terms of public opinion, and has become a multinational automobile company that unreasonably harms the nation under the banner of intellectual property rights. Ironclad evidence of car brands.