German commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN AG, Europe's third-largest truck maker, yesterday announced that it had filed a lawsuit for design patent infringement and damages against Chinese industrial and automotive group Zonda.

"The Zonda A9 is a copy of the Starliner, a coach developed by Neoplan Bus GmbH, a subsidiary of MAN AG," the German company said in a statement.

The Neoplan Starliner coach was launched at the International Automobile Show in Germany in September 2004, but has so far not been sold in China, said the German company.

"The unique design of the Starliner is protected by international patents and is protected in China by a registered design patent," said the statement.

In its complaint, the German company requested the court order the defendants to cease manufacturing and selling the Zonda A9 and pay appropriate monetary damages and costs normally granted in such cases internationally.

This action is part of the company's continuous efforts to protect its intellectual property rights worldwide, it said in the statement.

The lawsuit has been accepted and is now being handled by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

MAN said the case has received support from third-party advocates including the German Embassy in China, the German Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and Chinese company Jinhua Neoplan-Youngman.

The past several years have seen a sharp increase in IPR disputes in China's automobile industry between domestic and foreign manufacturers. At the end of 2002, Japanese automaker Toyota filed a lawsuit in Beijing against Geely, a fast-growing domestic automobile manufacturer based in East China's Zhejiang Province, for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

In the case, the first in China's automobile industry after the nation entered the World Trade Organization, Toyota asked for a total of 14 million yuan (US$1.77 million) in damages, calculating the amount by charging 1 per cent for each of the over 20,000 cars sold. In addition, Toyota also petitioned to be recognized as a "well-known trademark." But the court did not support any of Toyota's claims.

And in June 2003, GM claimed that Chinese firm Chery's QQ model was a copy of its Spark, a model manufactured by GM's South Korean subsidiary GM Daewoo. Chery maintained that there had been no infringement, and said it had obtained 24 patents for the QQ.

GM Daewoo later took legal action against Chery. In December 2004, GM initiated a series of invalidation actions against Chery's design patents. And in May 2005, GM Daewoo filed an unfair competition lawsuit against Chery in Beijing.

This high-profile dispute was solved in November 2005, when the parties reached a settlement and all the claims were withdrawn.

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