Beijing No. 1 Secondary Court has ordered three Chinese companies to pay more than CNY21.16 million in compensation to German-based bus manufacturer Neoplan for design patent infringement.
Neoplan said in its legal petition that it produced the European Starliner bus series in 2005 and owned a patent for the bus design, but it found in 2006 that the A9 series of buses produced by Zhongwei Bus Yancheng Zhongwei Bus Company and Zonda Industrial Group and sold by Beijing Zhongtong Xinghua Bus Sales Company are copies of its Starliner bus. Neoplan asked the three defendants to stop producing and selling the bus, and the two manufacturers paid Neoplan CNY40 million in compensation for economic losses.
It was claimed that Neoplan spent up to CNY1 million purchasing a bus from the defendant and presented it as evidence to the court. However, Zhongwei Bus Company replied that it did not infringe on Neoplan's rights as it had developed the bus on its own. In addition, the vendor Beijing Zhongtong Xinghua Bus Selling Company said there was no way for it to verify whether the bus infringes on the patent.
Through comparing the profile of the buses on two sides, the court found that the defendants' bus is identifiable with that of the plaintiff, hence it asked the vendor to stop selling the bus immediately and the two manufacturers to pay the plaintiff CNY20 million for economic losses and CNY1.16 million in legal fees.
