Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Xiao Zhan for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, January 20 (Xinhua) Audi has won a copyright lawsuit against Chinese electric carmaker Lailai, banning the sale of Weilai ES6 and ES8 models in Germany. Germany's Munich District Court ruled on Thursday that the name of the Weilai electric car is too similar and may be confused with Audi S6 and S8 high-performance cars.

The decision, disclosed by the German media Automobilwoche, said the ES6 and ES8 names infringed Audi's trademark because they could be misinterpreted as electric models of German brands.

The judge agreed that the name of the Weilai Nio was actually different from that of the Audi Audi, but even so, the additional letter E was not enough to fully distinguish them, making them "at least psychologically related in terms of sound".

"there is a risk that consumers will think that the ES6 is an electric version of the S6 and the two cars are from the same manufacturer," the judge said. "therefore, by surpassing pure Lenovo, there is a risk of confusion."

CTOnews.com learned that Audi began filing a lawsuit in court as early as mid-2022, when it argued that it was not about style similarity-the Nio model was the SUV, while Audi's model was a sedan-it was about naming similarities. Now, more than a year later, the German brand has won in court, but the verdict is not final and Weilai can appeal.

As a result, Xilai is now banned from promoting ES6 and ES8 models in Germany, and the Chinese carmaker faces a fine of up to 250000 euros (currently about 1.833 million yuan), or its general manager faces up to six months in prison if it fails to comply with the court's ruling. However, Nio can sell the ES7 in Germany, which was renamed EL7 in October last year.

Audi said in a statement that it "carefully and comprehensively protects [its intellectual property]" and that "the decision confirms that the name of the disputed model infringes Audi's trademark. Many Audi models have iconic features. This is also particularly applicable to Audi's sports S model."

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