Original: The ensuing saga between industry giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz and China’s Shuanghuan has taken another turn, this time with BMW filing a law suit against the European importer of the CEO SUV. The vehicle in question shares an almost identical rear end with BMW’s X5, but, according to Shuanghuan, the design is perfectly legal because it was approved by the Chinese government.
The European importer for the car is China Automobile, whose CEO, Karl Schloessl, told Associated Press reporters that it was developed independently and that it bears no similarities with the X5 in either style or price. BMW begs to differ claiming most people wouldn’t recognize any differences between the CEO and X5 upon seeing the cars for the first time.
Mercedes-Benz is also preparing to take legal action against the importer of another Shuanghuan model, the Nobel minicar, which shares a striking resemblance with the Smart Fortwo. Last week, tire manufacturer Continental won a case against a Chinese company selling counterfeit versions of its tires in Europe, and that decision has now left the door open for BMW and Mercedes to prevent China’s clone cars from being sold in Europe.
Reader Comments
Wed Sep 12 2007 6:12 PM
SuperSkyline89 says
YES!!!! Sue them into hell!!! OK, now that I got that out of my system, this is very good. If they can't take the time to design their own car's they don't deserve to sell them. I really hope BMW and Mercedes win a HUGE settlement. It would be even better if the Chinese companies were exiled from the European market along with their distributors. No one reading this site would mistake the CEO for an X5 but 90% of people would easily mistake them for each other. Ultimately, this just shows the complete lack of morality of the Chinese economy and their government.
Sat May 24 2008 4:20 PM
Clone says
UGLY!
Thu Jun 26 2008 11:02 AM
bambam says
i knew something like this would turn up all over the world. Not the copy cat but the law suit LOL. Next it will be in the US then Australia. There's too many car companies out there, I already have a headache on picking which car to buy, I don't won't rejects clouding my decision too. Its common sense, its just business and its not about china vs Germany.
its about blocking a hole in the industry to protect the originals.
Fri Jun 27 2008 8:21 AM
Roy says
Although this is a blatant example of two cars that look very similar to each other, where is the line being drawn? I saw the new Acura TSX yesterday and did a double take because it has morphed into something much closer to the Lexus IS sedan (co-incidentally its archrival). Could we sue GM for producing Pontiacs that look almost identical to Chevys? How does the copyright on shape work? Does it extend to interiors, in which case is Infiniti in trouble with MB for copying the COMAND toggle?
I'm not defending the copycats, but I don't think this is as open and shut as it appears. Besides, if you buy an inferior knock-off, you tend to get what you pay for.
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