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After 15 months of litigation, the trademark dispute between Audi and NIO, which has attracted much market attention, has finally come to an end. The Munich District Court ruled in favor of Audi on Thursday in the case of Audi accusing NIO of trademark infringement, according to the US auto news website Electrek. A ruling statement issued by the court said: "although the letter 'Euphrates 39' added to the defendant's logo is obviously different from the plaintiff's trademark & # 39 ~ (th), S6 ~ (th) 39; and & # 39 ~ (th), S8 ~ (th) 39, however, in this case, the letter 'Euphrates 39' is added. It does not provide enough differences, taking into account the average uniqueness of the trademark and the existing characteristics of the goods, the two are at least related in terms of sound, which will lead to the risk of indirect confusion. "

In June 2022, Volkswagen's Audi will formally sue for infringement of Audi's trademark, alleging that the names of the two ES6 and ES8 models infringe the trademarks of Audi S6 and S8, and that the names of the two models are too similar to confuse users and mistake them for Audi's electric S6 and S8. Audi said it owns the trademarks of S6 and S8, and NIO ES6 and ES8 infringed upon Audi's rights and interests.

At present, the ES6 and ES8 models are not on the market in Germany, and the ES7, the first pure electric car launched in the market, has been renamed EL7. In October 2022, NIO held "NIO Berlin" in Berlin, Germany, and launched three models of ET7, ET5 and ES7 at the same time, and renamed the ET7 ES7 to "EL7". There is widespread speculation in the market that it may have something to do with Audi's previous lawsuit against Lulai for trademark infringement, although the model being sued was not an ES7, but considering that the naming strategy of the above-mentioned models is consistent, the move is likely to avoid unnecessary disputes in Europe.

As for the reason why NIO renamed its ES7 model to "EL7" locally, NIO said that from the very beginning of the establishment of the company, it persisted in its originality and made a systematic reflection on the naming of the model. It began to apply for global registration in 2016 and was successfully registered in China, Europe, the United States and other markets. Unfortunately, Audi questioned the name of the ES8/ES6 model and filed a lawsuit in Germany. In view of the protracted litigation, in order to avoid affecting the interests of users in Europe, NIO decided to use the name EL7 in Europe for now. NIO will continue to respond to the ongoing trademark litigation in Germany.

For the Audi accusation of trademark infringement case, outsiders believe that the deeper reason is that NIO's entry into Germany (Audi's stronghold) threatens Audi's position. The ES8 is the first model of NIO, which went on sale in December 2017 and currently sells for RMB49.6-656000, while the ES6, the second mass-production model of Lulai, went on sale in December 2018 and currently sells for RMB38.6-554000. As one of the new forces in domestic car building, NIO also has a certain market position in the new energy vehicle market. According to data, a total of 122486 new cars were delivered to the Chinese market in 2022, an increase of 34 per cent over the same period last year. At the same time, this year also began to accelerate the layout of globalization, including expanding its products to Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and other places, and plans to enter more than 25 countries and regions by 2025.

By contrast, the competitiveness of traditional European car companies such as Audi in electric cars is not obvious. In the domestic market, Audi's electric products include Q4 e-tron, Q2L e-tron, Q5 e-tron, e-tron and other products, with a price range of about 20-500000 yuan, but these models do not perform well in the market. Data show that Audi sold a total of 118200 pure electric cars worldwide in 2022, while Ulay delivered 122500. According to the plan, Audi plans to launch only electric cars from 2026, all factories to produce pure electric vehicles from 2029, and gradually stop the production of fuel vehicles from 2033.

The prices of ET5, ET7 and EL7 models have been officially announced in Germany on November 22nd, 2022. The prices of ET5, ET7 and EL7 are 619-70900 euros (45.48-520900 yuan), 8.19-90900 euros (60.17-667800 yuan) and 8.59-94900 euros (RMB 63.11-697200 yuan) respectively. However, the latest verdict shows that the Munich District Court currently forbids Lai from promoting ES6 and ES8 in Germany, while Lai will face a fine of 250000 euros (1.8372 million yuan), and the general manager of the German company may face up to six months in prison. However, the verdict is not final. So far, NIO has not commented on the verdict, and it is not clear whether it will seek a higher court hearing after losing the case.

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