The legal battle has been seen as a test case on intellectual property rights protection in the mainland
A Beijing court yesterday dismissed a Toyota Motor lawsuit brought against a mainland firm accused of copying its logo. The test case has been closely watched by foreign multinationals worried about protection of their intellectual property rights in China.
The No2 Intermediate People's Court of Beijing rejected the suit brought by Toyota in December last year against privately owned Geely Group of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Geely was accused of using a logo similar to Toyota's trademark 'T' on the hood, steering column and boot of its Merry cars.
Toyota had demanded Geely stop using the logos and pay compensation of 13.92 million yuan (HK$12.93 million) and costs of 150,000 yuan. But the court yesterday ordered the Japanese manufacturer to pay costs of 80,360 yuan.
The court said consumers would be able to distinguish between a Toyota and Geely as the two logos were clearly different in design. It said consumers took a long time before buying a car and would not be confused between the two models or decide their purchase on the basis of a small item such as a logo.