AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/30 Report--

A major case will be staged in the auto circle in September. Zhejiang Geely holding Group and Geely Automobile Research Institute sued four companies of Weima Automobile, a new force in car manufacturing, on the grounds of infringing trade secrets. including Weima Automobile Technology Group, Weima Wisdom Travel Technology, Weima Automobile Manufacturing Wenzhou Company, Weima New Energy Automobile sales Company, and the claim amount in this dispute is as high as 2.1 billion yuan.

The case was opened in the case of judicial protection of intellectual property rights announced by the Supreme people's Court. Disputes over infringement of trade secrets, such as Zhejiang Geely holding Group Co., Ltd., v. Weima Automobile Technology Group Co., Ltd., were filed in 2018, with the subject matter of the lawsuit reaching 2.1 billion yuan.

The case will be heard in the Shanghai High Court on September 17, 2019.

Geely officials responded to the media that they would not make additional comments on the case and that everything would be subject to the court's decision, while Weimar responded: "Weimar did not have any infringement, and we are very confident of winning this lawsuit."

According to the data, trade secrets refer to technical information, business information and other commercial information that are not known to the public, have commercial value and have been kept secret by the obligee. Trade secret is the property right of the enterprise, it is related to the competitiveness of the enterprise, is very important to the development of the enterprise, and some even directly affect the survival of the enterprise.

The infringement of trade secrets includes obtaining the trade secrets of the beneficiary by improper means such as theft, inducement, coercion, and the act of disclosing, using or allowing others to obtain the trade secrets of the obligee by improper means; in violation of the agreement or the requirements of the right holder to keep trade secrets, disclose and use other people's trade secrets.

The details and reasons of Geely's complaint against Weimar for infringing trade secrets need to be disclosed, and what we can know is that the core employees in the early days of Weimar Automobile are from Geely.

Shen Hui, a former director and vice president of Geely Holdings Group, senior vice president and chairman of Volvo Automotive in China, officially founded Weimar in October 2015 and served as chairman and CEO of Weimar. During his tenure at Geely, Shen Hui led the Geely team to complete the overseas acquisition of Volvo and was responsible for the landing of Volvo in the Chinese market.

Many of Weimar's core employees at the time of its founding have Geely resumes. Including Dr. Xu Huanxin, partner and chief operating officer of Weimar, who previously led new energy technologies at Volvo.

At the same time, in the highly competitive automobile industry, the phenomenon of job-hopping and poaching of core employees is very common, but the disclosure of some patents and trade secrets is easy to touch relevant regulations and regulations, which constitute infringement of trade secrets or unfair competition.

The claim is as high as 2.1 billion yuan and may be one of the highest claims in intellectual property disputes in China's automobile industry.

The financing of the new car-building forces continues to live! Weimar completed 3 billion yuan of C-round financing in March this year, led by Baidu Group, so Weimar's cumulative financing amount has reached 23 billion yuan. Shen Hui also said that Weimar is seeking a new round of financing recently, which may raise up to $1 billion (about 6.9 billion yuan) for technology research and development, brand promotion, user services and channel development.

Weima Motor, headquartered in Shanghai, chose to build its own factory, located in Oujiang Estuary, Wenzhou. EX5 is the company's first mass-produced electric car, with 9149 cars in danger from January to July 2019. Shen Hui has said that Weimar aims to sprint 100000 vehicles this year.

Geely recently reported revenue of 47.56 billion yuan in the first half of 2019, down 11% from the same period last year, and net profit of 4 billion yuan, down 40% from the same period last year. Geely's total sales in the first half were 651700, down 15 per cent from a year earlier. An Conghui, president of Geely Automobile Group and CEO, said: "after 50 per cent of the Chinese auto industry goes bankrupt, the remaining 50 per cent of the competition may be the fiercest."

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