Reuters reports that JLR's action in China against the manufacturer of the Landwind vehicle which bears a striking similarity to the Range Rover Evoque is proceeding despite the cancellation of patents owned by both parties. We would call them registered designs, and (in China like here) they must be novel when the application to register them is made. The Chinese authorities revoked the design patent in April on the grounds that it had lost novelty because it had been made available to the public before the application was filed (in the EU, the applicant would enjoy a 12-month period of grace).
Jiangling, the producers of the Landwind, also had one or more design patents and they too have been revoked - on the grounds that they were too similar to JLR's (so they, too, would suffer from prior disclosure and consequent lack of novelty).
However, the legal action that we are really interested in is for copyright infringement and unfair competition, and is unaffected by the revocation of the design patents.
'via Blog this'
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