The trademark dispute between Toyota and Geely is actually the beginning of the intellectual property litigation crisis in China's automobile industry, which is the first foreign-related intellectual property litigation in the automobile field. Geely is the first private enterprise to produce automobiles in China, and it is from here that China automobile industry has started the prelude of "defending the intellectual property rights in China".
From June 5438 to February 2002, Toyota filed a lawsuit against Geely on the grounds of "trademark and unfair competition infringement", bringing Zhejiang Geely Automobile Co., Ltd., Beijing Lianchuang Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yachen Ye Wei Automobile Sales Center to court together, claiming that Geely infringed on Toyota's intellectual property rights.
According to Toyota, since May 2000, Geely Automobile Company has used the logo similar to the registered trademark of Toyota's "bull's head" in prominent positions such as the front cover, tires, steering wheel and trunk of American and Japanese cars under Geely Group, misleading consumers and infringing Toyota's trademark rights. At the same time, Toyota Japan also believes that Beijing Lianchuang Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yachen Ye Wei Automobile Sales Center have played slogans such as "Toyota Power, Price Temper" and "Use Toyota 8A Engine" in their external advertisements, which violates the principle of good faith and belongs to unfair competition.
According to the sales volume of 23,200 vehicles and the profit rate of 1% when Geely was sued, Toyota calculated that Geely should compensate139,200 yuan, and the total amount of the claim, including legal fees, was140,700 yuan, requiring Geely to compensate140,000 yuan.
Geely held a "symposium on protecting national intellectual property rights" in time, played a national banner, and stated that "Geely Group will fight for China automobile industry", which immediately made its tall image shine, and Li Shufu immediately became the embodiment of national hero, which aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the people all over the country to protect national industry.
Some media believe that "for multinational auto giants eager to completely occupy the China market, local enterprises such as Geely and Chery, which are still in a weak position, are a stumbling block to prevent them from occupying the China market. In desperation, intellectual property rights have become a bargaining chip for foreign car companies to suppress domestic car companies. The meaning of drunkenness is not in wine, and the ambition of multinational giants to monopolize the China auto market is obvious. " .
At the professional appraisal meeting attended by famous domestic legal professionals, after careful deliberation and comparison, many experts came to the credible conclusion that "Geely, American and Japanese automobile trademarks and Toyota trademarks cannot be confused by consumers". As soon as this conclusion came out, Toyota immediately felt that it was not sure of winning the case, so at the first court session in August, Toyota gave in. As long as Geely stopped using the trademark and propaganda language suspected of infringement, Toyota dropped the lawsuit and gave up all claims.
At the end of 2003, the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court rejected Toyota's claim in the first instance. The Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court held that "cars are high-priced goods, and consumers should generally consider them carefully before buying them. So they have a strong ability to identify different brands of cars. By observing and comparing the registered trademarks of Toyota Graphics, the plaintiff, and the registered trademarks of American and Japanese graphics used by Geely Company in isolation, it can be judged that there are great differences between them in overall vision under the general concern of the above-mentioned relevant public, and the relevant public will not confuse or mistake them, nor will they have bad associations with the exclusive right to use the registered trademarks of the plaintiff. Therefore, the court ruled that Geely's use of American and Japanese graphic trademarks does not constitute an infringement of the plaintiff's exclusive right to use registered trademarks.
Geely used the words "Toyota" and "Toyota" and the words "Toyota Power Price" and "TOYOTA8AFE Four-cylinder EFI Engine" when promoting the American and Japanese cars involved in the case, and used the words "Made by Toyota Motor Company" in the product instruction manual, which contained some exaggerated elements, but did not reach the level of misleading false propaganda on product performance and use as stipulated by Chinese laws. The relevant public will not mistakenly believe that the automobile engines in the United States and Japan are made in Japan, and the technology of 8A engine actually comes from Toyota, which will not adversely affect Toyota's brand reputation, and Geely's above behavior does not constitute unfair competition. "
At this point, Toyota's lawsuit against Geely ended in failure, which laid the foundation for the total failure of foreign companies in China's automobile industry in public opinion and became the ironclad evidence that multinational automobile companies unreasonably endangered national automobile brands under the banner of intellectual property rights.