Friday 28 November 2014

A cat fight is brewing: unauthorised imitation of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles in China


Jaguar, the well known British multinational car manufacturer may commence an action against Chinese car manufacturers, Chang’an Automobile Group and Jiangling Motors Corporation (Chang’an and Jiangling) for producing a land rover vehicle known as LandWind that is an imitation of the Jaguar Range Rover Evoque.


The LandWind vehicle was revealed to the public at the 12th China International Automobile Exhibition in November this year.  It was developed without authorisation by Jaguar and allegedly incorporates Jaguar’s distinctive intellectual property in the design.

Jaguar’s chief executive, Ralf Speth said that “The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing.  The simple principle is that it is not something that should happen; the IP is owned by Jaguar Land Rover and if you break that IP then you are in breach of international regulations that apply around the world”.

Jaguar is likely to enforce its intellectual property rights against the Chinese manufacturer by bringing actions for possible copyright, trade mark, patent and designs infringement as well as other claims for breach of the equivalent laws of misleading and deceptive conduct in China.

Enforcing intellectual property rights and generally commencing proceedings in China remains particularly challenging for foreign IP owners.  This is a timely reminder to review your intellectual property portfolios and ensure that all of your intellectual property registrations are in use, valid and are enforceable in those countries where the intellectual property is used.

 
 
 
  
 

1 comment:

  1. Your article seems to suggest that "land rover" is a generic term: I had thought that it is also a registered trade mark belonging to what is now Jaguar Rover. Has it been revoked for genericism?

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