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In October 2017, Honda formally sued Great Wall for patent infringement, involving a Harvard H6, the second time Honda has sued a Chinese-owned car brand for infringement. On June 20, the above-mentioned case was formally heard in the Beijing intellectual property Court.

According to the plaintiff Honda Technical Research Industry Co., Ltd., in 2007, the company obtained two patents for inventions entitled "the rear door structure of the vehicle" (No. 200710008273.0) and "the decoration installation structure of the vehicle" (No. 200710161631.1).

In 2015, Honda bought an upgraded Harvard H6 from Beijing Boslian Automobile sales Center, a dealership of Great Wall Motors. Honda has notarized the car since it was put on the market and sold in January 2015. After disassembly and comparison, Honda believes that the rear door structure and vehicle decoration installation structure of Great Wall's Harvard H6 upgraded model all fall within the scope of protection of the patent right involved in the case, infringing upon Honda's patent right, and shall bear civil liability such as stopping infringement and compensating losses in accordance with the law. Honda decided to file a lawsuit with the Beijing intellectual property Court in October 2017, which was accepted by the court.

For the above reasons, Honda asked the court to rule that Great Wall immediately stop infringing the patents involved, including the manufacture, sale and promise to sell the model Harvard H6, and destroy the inventory of products, drawings, special equipment, moulds and promotional materials for the model. The seller of the vehicle used to dismantle the notarized vehicle, Beijing Boss Union, also became the defendant in this case.

At the same time, Honda asked Great Wall Motor to pay a total of 22.14 million yuan in compensation.

According to Caixin, Honda once again raised at the trial that the two patents of Harvard H6 were consistent with those held by Honda and were suspected of infringement. Great Wall denies all these allegations, saying that the structure is different and the use effect is obviously different.

Honda considers 10 per cent of Great Wall's infringement profits as compensation, or 22.14 million yuan. The lawyer for Great Wall pointed out that Honda chose the sales of all Hafer H6 models as the basis for calculation, because Honda chose only the upgraded version of H6 to be dismantled and could not prove that all H6 models were infringing.

The case was not sentenced in court, and both Honda and Great Wall offered to accept mediation.

Great Wall Automobile is the representative car company of China's own brands. Harvard H6 is the sales pillar of Great Wall, accounting for nearly half of its sales, and it is also the top 10 models in China's SUV and even global SUV sales list. Whether infringement will have a significant impact on Great Wall's reputation. The Harvard H6 accounted for 450000 of Great Wall's 1.05 million new car sales in 2018.

Great Wall Motor said in an earlier statement that the company respects the intellectual property rights of all interested parties, including Honda, and will conduct technical due diligence freely in the product development process to avoid infringing upon the intellectual property rights of relevant parties and harming the interests of relevant parties. Great Wall also said that the Harvard H6 is a completely independent product developed by the company, with independent intellectual property rights, after a detailed comparative analysis, confirmed that there is no infringement of Honda's intellectual property rights.

It is worth noting that Honda has lost a lawsuit against Chinese companies for patent infringement. In 2003, Honda sued Shijiazhuang Shuanghuan Automobile Company, arguing that the latter "double Ring Noble S-RV" infringed Honda CR-V 's design patent. After 13 years of litigation, the Hebei Provincial higher people's Court rejected Honda's lawsuit and awarded Honda 16 million yuan in compensation to Shuanghuan in the name of unfair competition.

But there are also success stories. Jaguar Land Rover sued Jiangling Holdings Co., Ltd. "Land Wind X7" infringement case. In April 2019, Beijing Chaoyang District people's Court ruled that Jiangling immediately stopped the "unfair competition behavior" involved in the case, immediately stopped production and sale of two specific models of Land Wind X7, issued a statement on the official website and media, and paid 1.5 million yuan in compensation to Jaguar Land Rover. Subsequently, according to media reports, Jiangling appealed to the Beijing intellectual property Court against the verdict.

As for whether the Harvard H6 constitutes an infringement in this case, it will have a significant impact on the production, sales and reputation of Great Wall and its model, and we will keep an eye on the follow-up progress.

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