Audi sues NIO for car name infringement and wins or fines 250,000 euros

In September last year, Weilai entered the European market, including ET7, ET5 and ES7 will be introduced in full, but in the local area, ES7 has been renamed EL7 . The reason for this is related to a previous Audi lawsuit.

Prior to this, there had been a dispute between the two brands for several months. Audi had brought NIO to court in October 2021, accusing NIO of violating Audi’s trademark rights . Its two models named ES6 and ES8 violated the trademark rights of Audi’s two models, S6 and S8, and an Audi spokesman later confirmed the lawsuit.

According to the plan, the verdict will be released after the hearing in May 2022, but it has been postponed many times due to various reasons. Now, after 15 months, the verdict has finally been pronounced: the local district court agreed with Audi’s lawsuit statement, Audi Preliminary victory.

In its ruling statement, the court stated: “Although the letter ‘E’ added to the defendant’s mark is distinctly different in word and sound from the plaintiff’s trademarks ‘S6’ and ‘S8’, however, in this case, the letter ‘E’ added ‘ did not provide sufficient distinction, which would lead to an indirect risk of confusion, taking into account the average distinctiveness of the mark and the existing characteristics of the goods, which are at least sonically related.”

The Chamber further explained: “Many people will regard the only difference between the two signs, ‘E’, as merely an indication of the type of vehicle engine, and consumers will think that ‘ES6’ is the electric version of ‘S6’, which in turn will Both cars are believed to be from the same manufacturer .”

After the verdict is released, NIO will be banned from advertising for ES6 and ES8 models in Germany. Of course, these two models have not yet entered the local market, and the ES7 that has entered the market has also been replaced with EL7. From time to time, it will also be renamed EL8 and EL6.