Beijing Chaoyang District Court ruled that Jiangling Motors should pay compensation to the British manufacturer.
Jaguar Land Rover, part of Tata Motors, said it won a case in China against local rival Jiangling Motors Corp for making cars that copy features of Range Rover Evoque. On Friday, the Beijing Chaoyang District Court said that Evoque, whose latest model was launched in 2018, had five unique features that were copied directly in the Landwind X7 built by Jiangling Motors.
According to the ruling passed by the court, the sales, manufacturing and marketing of the Landwind vehicle must be stopped immediately and compensation should be paid to Jaguar Land Rover. The Landwind X7 and the Evoque have a similar shape, with tapering roof and windows from front to back and near-identical tail lights and character lines on the side panelling.
The British carmaker had sued Jiangling in 2016. Despite widespread and often blatant copying, global automakers generally don’t take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against local firms are low. Also, due to the doubt whether the Chinese public thinks a foreign company is bullying domestic competitors, a lawsuit could be bad for the branding of the company.
JLR Case Against Jiangling Motors
– The company had filed the lawsuit in 2016
– The Evoque and the Landwind X7 have a similar shape, almost identical tail-lights
– Global automakers usually do not take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against locals firms are low
