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German auto firm wins lawsuit over design rip-off

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-22 07:56

German auto company Neoplan Bus GmbH has successfully sued three Chinese companies for 20 million yuan after they copied its bus design and then sold their vehicles for one third of the German price, a Beijing court said Wednesday.

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The Zhongwei Bus & Coach Group, its parent company Zonda Industrial Group and its agent Beijing Zhongtong Xinghua Vehicle Sales Co, Ltd. were ordered to pay 20 million yuan ($2.92 million) in compensation to Neoplan by the First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing in a ruling on Monday, the court said.

The Chinese companies were also ordered to stop making and selling the "A9" bus. The court backed Neoplan's accusation that the Chinese companies' design was a copycat of the German company's award-winning Starliner. The Chinese companies also had to pay 1.16 million yuan in legal costs.

Neoplan filed a suit at the court on September 26, 2006, demanding 40 million in compensation from the Chinese companies.

The court has ruled that Zhongwei's A9 bus had too much in common with Starliner.

Neoplan said it obtained the design patent of Starliner in China in September 2004 and began making and selling the buses then. It found the Chinese companies were selling A9 buses in the spring of 2006.

Some A9 buses had been exported to southeast Asian countries and to eastern Europe. The A9 was sold at about a third of the Starliner's price.