Patent Panic: China Stymies Honda in Battle To Control Rights to CR-V Design

Date posted: 03-24-2006

SHANGHAI — Honda has received a blow in its vigorous legal battle against Chinese car manufacturers that it alleges have copied its CR-V: China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has canceled the Japanese automaker's patent for the SUV.

Back in October 2003, Honda filed a suit against Shijiazhuang Shuanghuan Automobile, claiming the Chinese company's Shuanghuan Rabo SR-V looked too much like its own CR-V. A similar suit was launched a year later against Hebei Xinkai and 11 other Chinese car manufacturers. Honda has been manufacturing its CR-V at a joint-venture plant in the Wuhan region since April 2004.

Honda claims that China's SIPO had previously granted a 10-year patent protection agreement covering the second-generation CR-V, which it says started in 2002. SIPO's rationale for canceling that patent is that the new model is too similar to the first generation.

Earlier this year, General Motors came to an agreement with Chery on the famous Chevrolet Spark copyright case, while a less publicized case has recently been launched by French PSA Peugeot-Citroën against Shanghai-Maple.

What this means to you: The war over inexpensive Chinese knockoffs has probably only begun.

Link: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=109753

Chinese car manufacturers will find a way to copy every design already designed by every manufacturer. That way they don't need to spend any money on designers, not that they're lacking money, they obviously have control of their government :AH-HA_wink:

The design is copied, but this is more like a replica, based on a modified Toyota or Isuzu pickup frame, and a Mitsubishi engine.

Is it me, or does the Chinese SUV's logo looks like it belongs on a washing machine?

Chinese douchebags.

That's a good one...It's like buying a fake Gucci in Manhatten. lol

Is it me, or does the Chinese SUV's logo looks like it belongs on a washing machine?

Well, the SR-V does kinda look like it could be something made by Whirlpool.

That's a good one...It's like buying a fake Gucci in Manhatten. lol

When I was last in NYC, I bought some Mount Blanc pens off a guy on Canal Street - 6 for $15. They actually write damn well.

When I was last in NYC, I bought some Mount Blanc pens off a guy on Canal Street - 6 for $15. They actually write damn well.

Cat-eating bastards...anyway they can't even copy the CRV right...it actually makes the CRV look good.