The 2.1 billion high-priced lawsuit that made a lot of noise in 2019 may end with only 5 million in the end. Of course, this is on a public level.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile completed the entire process from prosecution to withdrawal. After paying nearly 700,000 yuan in case acceptance fees, Li Shufu and Shen Hui's first battle over trade secrets ended in such a low-key manner.
Who lowered his head in this confrontation? Will the next dispute also end in an anticlimax?
Geely withdrew the lawsuit and paid nearly 700,000
In mid-January, the China Judgment Document Network released a civil ruling. The document, titled "Civil Ruling of the First Instance on the Dispute between Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., WM Sino-German Automotive Technology Chengdu Co., Ltd., and Xiang Jianming for Infringement of Trade Secrets" stated:
Plaintiff Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. and the defendants WM Zhongde Automotive Technology Chengdu Co., Ltd., Xiang Jianming, Zhong Xingyuan, Kou Xinchen, WM Automotive Technology Group Co., Ltd., and WM Smart Travel Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., a dispute over infringement of trade secrets, Senior People of Sichuan Province The court filed the case on October 12, 2018. The plaintiff, Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., filed an application with the court to withdraw the lawsuit on December 25, 2019.
The Sichuan Provincial Higher People's Court made the ruling that Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. was allowed to withdraw the lawsuit; the case acceptance fee was 1,391,800 yuan, half of which was 695,900 yuan, which was borne by Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd.
Although the ruling does not mention the word "Geely", the plaintiff Chengdu Gaoyuan Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. (Chengdu Gaoyuan) is an out-and-out "Geely".
Information shows that the shareholders of Chengdu Plateau are Zhejiang Jirun Automobile Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Huapu Guorun Automobile Co., Ltd., although the equity of these two companies is relatively complex and involves a company called Centurion Industries. Limited’s overseas company, but an announcement issued by Geely Automobile in 2007 showed that this overseas company is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. In other words, Geely Automobile holds all shares of Chengdu Plateau.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile, Chengdu Gaoyuan first initiated an infringement lawsuit involving trade secrets against three "Weima" companies and three natural persons, and then withdrew the lawsuit by paying a price of 695,900 yuan. Obviously not consistent with common sense.
In fact, Chengdu Plateau will pay an additional 15 yuan in litigation costs.
In 2018, Chengdu Plateau filed a lawsuit against Xiang Jianming, Zhong Xingyuan and Kou Xinchen on the grounds of labor disputes, and withdrew the lawsuit at the same time on January 11, 2019, paying each natural person 5 yuan. case acceptance fee.
Who is the one who bows his head?
As natural persons who appeared twice in the ruling, Xiang Jianming, Zhong Xingyuan and Kou Xinchen are not ordinary grassroots employees. On LinkedIn, Xiang Jianming’s latest position is the new energy director of WM Motor; on Zhihu, Kou Xinchen’s personal profile is automotive electronics designer; Zhong Xingyuan has a more specific job description - Chengdu WM Automotive Research Institute Weimar Senior manager of ADAS at Ma Automobile.
As early as October 2016, Xiang Jianming, Zhong Xingyuan and Kou Xinchen appeared in WM Motor’s patent information as inventors. So far, the patent information of the above three people has reached dozens of rise.
In addition, Chengdu Plateau also filed a lawsuit against Zhang Xuekui on the grounds of infringement of trade secrets. Zhang Xuekui is also the inventor among many patent information of WM Motor.
Absorbing talents from Geely Automobile to achieve more efficient technology research and development, WM Motor's development ideas are not limited to the above few people.
In 2015, the year WM Motor was founded, Chairman and CEO Shen Hui established the WM Motor Chengdu Research Institute. In September 2018, WM Motor upgraded its Chengdu Research Institute into a global R&D headquarters, planning to invest 5.5 billion yuan to build five research institutes and ten testing laboratories.
When the Chengdu Research Institute was first established, Geely Automobile was already the “cradle of talent” for WM Motor. Zhou Yiping, the former deputy general manager of Chengdu Gaoyuan, became the president of WM Motor Chengdu Research Institute; vice president Luo Sizhou, in the early years, even appeared on the same patent inventor list as Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group.
In view of Shen Hui’s work experience in Geely Automobile (former Vice President of Geely Holding Group, Global Senior Vice President of Volvo Cars and Chairman of China), WM Motor has benefited from Geely Automobile’s “talent” in the field of research and development. "Transportation" is not difficult to understand. What is unreasonable is that after Chengdu Plateau filed a lawsuit against WM Motor, it spent a lot of money to withdraw the lawsuit.
In the ruling made by the Sichuan Provincial Higher People's Court, the plaintiff who withdrew the lawsuit, Chengdu Plateau, needs to bear the case acceptance fee of 1,391,800 yuan, and it will charge 695,900 yuan at a half rate. With reference to the national measurement standards for case acceptance fees, it is estimated at 0.05 that the amount of litigation in Chengdu Plateau is as high as 278.26 million yuan.
Although the outside world does not know the real reason why Chengdu Plateau withdrew the lawsuit, there are only two possibilities - Li Shufu and Shen Hui. One party will always choose to bow his head. Or, Chengdu Plateau realizes that it is in the wrong and withdraws the lawsuit because it cannot provide a complete chain of evidence; or, Chengdu Plateau and WM Motor reach an out-of-court settlement, and after receiving corresponding compensation, Chengdu Plateau withdraws the lawsuit.
2.1 billion yuan, can a major issue be minimized
An industry insider who did not want to be named said that in the competition between Geely Automobile and WM Motor, there is a possibility that Li Shufu will bow his head. Extremely low. First, it is an indisputable fact that many of WM Motor's R&D executives and technical personnel came from Geely Automobile; second, at the critical moment when WM Motor is seeking D-round financing, Shen Hui needs to minimize any uncontrollable risks. Once the lawsuit evolves into a lengthy tug-of-war, WM Motor’s Series D financing is likely to change.
According to this point of view, another lawsuit filed by Geely Automobile at the end of August 2019 may also minimize the major incident.
On August 30, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Geely Automobile Research Institute filed a lawsuit with the National High Court in the name of infringement of trade secrets. The defendants were four subsidiaries of WM Motor (WM Motor) Technology Group, WM Smart Travel Technology, WM Motor Manufacturing Wenzhou Company, WM New Energy Vehicle Sales Company), the claim amount is as high as 2.1 billion yuan.
Some media reported that Shen Hui once stated in an internal letter that he was "not afraid of the challenges of the old forces." However, facing a sky-high price of 2.1 billion yuan in litigation, it is difficult for WM Motor, which is in urgent need of financing, to be confident. Full.
Whether it loses the lawsuit or the lawsuit enters a long stalemate stage, it will have a negative impact on WM Motor's cash flow. Reaching an out-of-court settlement with Geely Auto is almost the only solution for WM Motor to get out of the litigation quagmire.
Even so, since the amount of the lawsuit is as high as 2.1 billion yuan, once the lawsuit is withdrawn, Geely Automobile will have to bear more than 10 million yuan in case acceptance fees (haled to 5 million yuan), and this fee will inevitably be passed on To WM Motor. Coupled with the out-of-court settlement of compensation to Geely Automobile, WM Motor's cash flow will be put to the test.
In addition, Che Yitiao quoted relevant news as saying that in the indictment submitted by Geely Automobile, in addition to the four legal entities of WM Motor, the subjects of the lawsuit include Shen Hui, Weimar Automobile Co., Ltd. More than 100 natural persons including Hou Haijing, co-founder of Ma Automobile (former vice president of Geely Group and general manager of Geely Chengdu Base), most of whom are former employees of Geely Automobile.
While friends and businessmen are running hard without distractions, the pending 2.1 billion lawsuit is an invisible shackle for WM Motor. The key to the shackles was firmly in Li Shufu's hand.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.