SCEO design adjudged infringing for resemblance to BMW X5

The court in Munich of Germany made a adjudgement that the styling design of Chinese SCEO cars marketed by a German dealer causes infringement for resembling that of BMW X5.

According to German news, as adjudged by the court, German dealer must stop selling SCEO cars, destroy the existing cars and compensate for the economic losses of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG..

The SCEO cars are marketed by China Automobile Deutschland of Germany. The principal of the dealer Karl Schloessl said to the media that the adjudgement is no the final result and they will file an appeal later.

Karl Schloessl expressed that they are preparing the lawsuit to the European Court of Justice, because the relevant law of the European Union stipulates that the car licensed to be sold in the other countries of the EU can't be prohibited in Germany, while over 1,000 SCEO cars have been sold in Italy.

A spokesman of the BMW AG., headquartered in Munich said to the media, "we are glad that the court agreed on our viewpoints that SCEO car styling design is infringing." However, he didn't disclose whether they will collect the due compensation from the dealer.

Besides SCEO, Noble, another type of car of Shuanghuan Auto is also blamed for plagiarizing design of Smart, a classic two-seat minicar by Daimler AG..

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her speech at Chinese Academy of Sciences, "it is very harmful if a car with full resemblance to Smart is manufactured by illegal means of plagiarism." She expressed that Germany will raise such problems as plagiarism and piracy on the table, for she believes that such acts not only violate interests of foreign companies, but also hamper the originality of Chinese auto.

It is reported that Manager Xiao, in charge of promotion in Shuanghuan Auto said in an interview that SCEO and Noble are both the legal types of car included in the list of automobile manufacturers and products issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and Shuanghuan doesn't agree to the infringement, which is the unilateral opinion of BMW AG.. [Chinese version is available on Xinhua]