It seems Fiat may have been succesful in suing Great Wall over the Great Wall Peri, furthermore, it might even effect Chinese sales….
Fiat says it has sued Great Wall Motor Co. to prevent the Chinese carmaker from selling a new small car called the Peri.
In April, Fiat started in Turin a legal action for Europe. A similar action was started in China for domestic sales a month later.
Fiat says the Peri’s doors, roof, tailgate and the entire body shape are exactly the same as the Fiat Panda’s, although the headlamps and bumpers of the car are different.
“We expect the first court ruling in China by December, and in Turin for Europe by the end of January 2008,” says Monica Borgi, a lawyer Fiat Group Automobiles.
But Shang Yugui, a spokesman for Great Wall, says, “Peri is a self-developed car of Great Wall. We hold the intellectual property rights as well as the patents of Peri.”
He says the first Peri will roll off the production line in late October. However, sales of the car may be postponed till Great Wall gets a production license from China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Hey Ash I will be bloody amazed if Fiat Auto make any headway on this. Countless before them have tried and failed. SGM, Honda, etc.
There always seems to be some mitigating reason that gets the Chinese manufacturer off the hook.
Well I guess Great Wall what they are doing, face up the responsibility or this will be an everlasting case.
this case might be worth reading. damn it, why can’t it be in a real court? i.e a common law court
Good luck to FIAT. I hope they win this battle with Great Wall. They must not be allowed to break copyright law. I will be very amazed if Fiat didn’t win the case. Shame on Great Wall. They give chinese a bad name!
If the industrial shapes are EXACTLY the same, Great Wall’s arguments are very weak. If I can ask my government to grant me the “intellectual property” for what I have objectively copied, that’s a big political case. When you tell the Chinese about human rights, they regularly answer: “you don’t understand”. I argue that we understand perfectly…