On May 20, a Changan Automobile "Official Letter Requesting the Immediate Stop of Unfair Competition" was exposed online. The content of the official letter shows that the "Lingbao Automobile Uni Launch Conference" series of advertisements owned by Jiangsu Jimai New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jimai New Energy") uses the advertising term "Uni", which has constituted a violation of Changan Automobile. Therefore, Jimai New Energy is required to immediately stop the aforementioned unfair competition from the date of receipt of this letter and provide a written reply on the handling of the situation.
Changan Automobile stated that Changan Automobile’s UNI serial product naming scheme was released in September 2019. Since then, UNI-T, UNI-K, and UNI-V models have been successively launched and large-scale publicity and investment have been carried out. At this stage, Changan Automobile's "UNI" series products have enjoyed a high reputation in the market and have a good reputation and market influence. Lingbao Auto Uni, a subsidiary of Jimai New Energy, prominently uses the word UNI in its promotional posters, which is enough to confuse people into thinking it is a Changan Auto UNI serial product or has a specific connection with Changan Auto UNI serial products.
According to data, Lingbao Automobile is a new energy brand under Jiangsu Jimai New Energy Vehicle Industry Co., Ltd., and Lingbao Uni model is a new micro electric vehicle under Lingbao Automobile. Two models have been launched. The model, with a price range of 38,800 yuan to 49,800 yuan, is comparable to Hongguang MINIEV, Chery QQ Ice Cream and other mini electric vehicle models.
As for the Changan Automobile UNI series, this series of models is considered a key product for the Changan brand's youthful transformation. As of now, Changan's UNI series has three models, including UNI-T launched on June 21, 2020, UNI-K launched on March 18, 2021, and UNI-V launched on March 21 this year. Most of the models in this series are priced in the range of 100,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan.
In terms of production and sales, in the second half of 2020, UNI-T's cumulative sales were 68,556 vehicles, and in 2021, its cumulative sales were 83,610 vehicles; from March to December 2021, UNI-K's cumulative sales were 31,992 vehicles. The latest data shows that from January to April this year, the cumulative sales of UNI-T were 18,586 vehicles, the cumulative sales of UNI-K were 13,547 vehicles, and the cumulative sales of UNI-V were 11,380 vehicles.
In fact, the automobile industry is a typical intellectual property-intensive industry, especially when the global automobile industry is at a critical moment of industrial restructuring and technological change, intellectual property rights can be said to be an indispensable part. . In contrast, intellectual property competition disputes often occur in the automobile industry.
As early as 2016, Jaguar Land Rover accused Jiangling Holdings Company’s Landwind X7 model of allegedly infringing the intellectual property rights of its Range Rover Evoque model; in 2019, Honda believed that Great Wall Motor’s 2016 Haval H6 upgraded model He plagiarized two patents and sued for a compensation of 22.14 million yuan.
(Editor Shangguan Monroe)