German bus and coach manufactuer, Neoplan Bus GmbH (hereafter called Neoplan) has won a recent intellectual property lawsuit against a local automotive company in China.
The Beijing No 1 intermediate people's court, where the case was heard, ruled that automotive Zonda Industrial Group (hereinafter called Zonda), its subsidiary Zhongwei Bus & Coach Group(hereinafter called Zhongwei)and its sales agent, Beijing Zhongtong Xinghua Vehicle Sales Co. jointly to pay a total of 21.16 million RMB to Neoplan Bus GmbH including 1.16 million RMB in legal costs.
Besides ordering the three Chinese companies to compensate Neoplan for patent infringement, the court ordered the 3 Chinese companies to stop manufacturing the pirated products and its sales for the related products.
Neoplan applied for design patent for its Starliner coach in China in 2004. In 2006, Neoplan filed the lawsuit against Zonda and accused Zonda of copying Neoplan's "Starliner" coach to make its "A9" series coach.
Upon review, the court ruled that there were many similarities between the accused product and the design of Starliner. In spite of minor difference, such difference can not produce any distinctive visual effect when comparing the two products. Therefore, Zonda was ordered to stop the manufacturing and sale of the alleged product and pay damages suffered by Neoplan.
