A mainland court has ordered three Chinese firms to pay a German bus maker more than 20 million yuan (HK$22.69 million) for design violations, one of the largest awards to a foreign company under intellectual property laws.
The Beijing court ordered the firms to pay MAN Group's Neoplan Bus 20 million yuan in damages plus 1.16 million yuan in costs, said mainland judicial website Chinacourt.org.
When Neoplan filed the lawsuit seeking 40 million yuan of damages against the firms in 2006, it was touted as one of the country's 10 landmark court cases of that year, given the large amount sought.
It was also the first lawsuit brought by a foreign firm for violation of intellectual property rights involving bus design since China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001.
The First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing found mainland bus maker Zhongwei Passenger Bus, its parent Zonda Group, and a Beijing vehicle sales firm guilty of copying the design of Neoplan's Starliner model, said Chinacourt. The court ordered an immediate halt to production and sales of the buses.
The ruling is expected to strengthen foreign companies' faith in the mainland legal system.
The court ruled last week that Zhongwei's Zonda A9 bus was a copy of the Neoplan Starliner and infringed on the Neoplan design, said Urs Vollrath, the managing director of MAN Truck & Bus China.