AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/20 Report--

On Sept. 18, the BMW (China) Automobile Trading Company issued an apology saying it apologized for violating Mr. Liu Xiang's portrait right.

The statement reads: recently, BMW (China) Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. ("our company") received the final verdict in Mr. Liu Xiang's case of infringement of our company's portrait rights. Our company posted an article entitled "retired heroes" on official Weibo and official Wechat accounts on April 8, 2015, but failed to delete the earlier article on official Weibo and official Wechat accounts in time. Infringed on Mr. Liu Xiang's portrait right. Our company expresses our sincere apologies to Mr. Liu Xiang in this regard.

It is understood that on April 8, 2015, the Sina Weibo account 'BMW China' certified by BMW (China) Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. read: "he has created extraordinary legends with ordinary." He overcame many obstacles by flying. Salute to the ordinary, passion does not end, # retirement is also a hero # @ Liu Xiang LX more legendary, happy ordinary 'Weibo, and with a processed picture of Liu Xiang's start, and the background is designed as the front face of a BMW car, while implanted with the brand logo.

Liu Xiang's side believes that BMW continues to use Liu Xiang's portrait after the termination of the "cooperation agreement" with Liu Xiang, which lacks the basis of the contract. Wechat pictures and Weibo official account articles are not retained in the term of use of the Cooperation Agreement and belong to infringement.

The Beijing Municipal No. 3 Intermediate people's Court held that after BMW and Liu Xiang terminated the endorsement agreement, the endorsement pictures previously posted on Weibo and Wechat self-media platforms were not deleted, which constituted the use of Liu Xiang's portrait, and the use was not authorized and agreed by Liu Xiang, nor did it have other reasonable use cases, so it constituted an infringement on Liu Xiang's portrait right.

After a long trial, the portrait infringement case ended in the defeat of BMW, and the apology was issued. It is worth mentioning that the statement has been deleted by BMW China.

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