It is understood that Ford Motor Company, the parent company of Lincoln Motor, filed an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office, objecting to the LYNKCO brand trademark registration submitted by Geely to the US Patent and Trademark Office on October 25th, 2065 438+065438+/KLOC-0, saying that Geely's LYNKCO brand is highly similar to Ford's luxury car brand Lincoln in pronunciation, which easily confuses consumers.
In this regard, Yang Xueliang, vice president and spokesperson of Geely Automobile Group, said in an interview that the trademark of Lectra is clear, the legal team is preparing a defense, and Lectra is confident in holding the trademark. It is understood that Kelin brand has registered trademarks in China and major European countries, and has also been initially recognized by the US Trademark Office.
2065438+July 2007, Chery, a China automobile brand, and Mercedes-Benz, a German automobile brand, reached a cooperative understanding on the use of brand names of their new energy automobile brands-"EQ/EQ". This time, another transnational trademark dispute surfaced, but in the eyes of the industry, Geely and Ford may not be as calm as Chery and Mercedes-Benz.
It is reported that Geely filed an application for trademark registration in the United States on October 25th, 2006, with the application number of 20 165438, which is currently under public examination. According to American trademark law, in this process, other enterprises and the public can raise questions and opinions. "This will help the US Patent and Trademark Office to further improve the review process and improve the quality and efficiency of patent applications." David, director of American patent intellectual property rights, and capps, vice minister of commerce, both pointed out in public.
This also means that Ford is currently only raising objections, not suing. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gave Ford an extra 90 days to file an objection to the Lectra trademark before 201715.
However, according to the relevant person in charge of Geely, Ford's objection has not affected the application for trademark in the United States. A Lincoln spokesman said, "The Lincoln brand has a history of 65,438+000 years, hoping to protect its reputation. The Kling brand infringed Lincoln's trademark rights, and Lincoln is taking legal measures to prevent them from using infringing trademarks. " Geely is also full of confidence in this. As Yang Xueliang said, Geely's legal team is also actively preparing for the defense.
According to an insider who has just experienced the transnational trademark case of Chery and Mercedes-Benz, it will be a test of the depth of Geely's internationalization, including concept awareness, professional ability and communication and negotiation level. This year, Geely's international team has successively introduced heavyweights to plan overseas markets. On May 24th, Nan Shengliang, former deputy general manager of Geely Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., became the general manager of Geely International Company. At the beginning of August, it was reported that Yansong Li, general manager of Geely New Energy Sales Company, would be transferred to the Group to take charge of overseas mergers and acquisitions. With the acquisition of Proton to expand overseas business, Geely urgently needs talents to expand overseas markets. This iconic game will be the first major test for the new team.