There will be no stopping the Chinese-built Smart clone
Automotive News Europe (subs req'd) is reporting that there is very little that will stop the upcoming sales of a Smart 'clone' in Europe. Even though Martin Motors, the European importer of the Noble, a Chinese-built car, has been threatened with lawsuits, Martin is saying the cars will go on sale at the end of October or early November for between seven and nine thousand euros. The Smart car company is part of Mercedes-Benz.
The CEO of Martin Motors, Guido Martinelli, explained to Automotive News Europe that Mercedes' legal threats are not a big deal. "After a preliminary hearing between our lawyers and those from our German distrubtor, we see no evidence in Mercedes claims. We plan to show the Noble at the IAA in Frankfurt," he said.
IAA organizers may prevent the Noble from making an appearance "if the model infringed intellectual property rights," Automotive News Europe writes. Look at the pictures above. You think it qualifies?
[Source: Luca Ciferri and James Franey / Automotive News Europe]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jg3 2:43PM (8/31/2007)
Yet they'll fine the heck out of the parents of a 10 year old for copying a Hannah Montana mp3 and giving it to a friend.
Nuts.
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mike 3:42PM (8/31/2007)
Mercedes need to advertize some crash test comparisons.
Only a Fool would buy a chinese car.
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Ron Fischer 4:43PM (8/31/2007)
Question is what is the claim of infringement based on. Can (does) Smart/Mercedes consider the style and exterior design of the car a trademark? Certainly they can't use the three point star logo, or the Smart logo, or put the word "Smart" on the thing, but otherwise?
In other words, just looking at it probably doesn't qualify.
Would seem to be a nightmare scenario for western automakers in general however... at least until the crash tests mentioned above appear on YouTube.
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Don 5:05PM (8/31/2007)
This is only going to embolden the Chinese even more.
Great. Let them get away with it. Pay for it down the line.
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Domenick 5:18PM (8/31/2007)
It's too bad the Chinese couldn't have copied the roadster Smart dropped from it's lineup.
http://archive.cardesignnews.com/autoshows/2002/paris/highlights/h15-smart-roadster.html
With a powerful electric motor and modern batteries instead of this i.c.e. nonsense I'd be the fool to buy one.
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stevejust 7:40PM (8/31/2007)
Smart roadster!
I saw one of those driving down Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills yesterday and thought I was imagining things. From the front I thought maybe Venturi was producing a low-end Fetish, or I thought maybe it was some sort of extremely limited production electric cars (anyone remember the Zebra convertible?) but when it drove by, it said "smart."
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Turbofrog 7:46PM (8/31/2007)
Ron, the design and styling of a vehicle is protected under intellectual property laws in the form of industrial design rights. Design patents are actually exclusive to aesthetics - that is, they can't protect the functional attributes of something the way a normal patent does.
Not that it matters, anyway, since China rarely respects international law when it comes to intellectual property protection, so it's a moot point.
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bioburner 8:19PM (8/31/2007)
Turbofrog-So your saying the chines just have to make a small change in the appearance (Styling)of their clone and they can get away with it?
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Der Alte 4:29AM (9/01/2007)
You'd have to have rocks in your head to buy one of these Chinese clones. The only thing that will save your bacon in an accident in your Smart car is the precision construction and careful engineering of the vehicle. Its no small feat to get a car of that size to perform as well as larger cars in crash testing.
The Chinese copy may look the same, but does the chassis have the same careful engineering that would cause the vehicle to perform well in a crash? I doubt it. Too many Chinese manufacturers have made it all to evident consumer safety is low on their list of priorities.
What Mercedes should do is get ADAC to do a thorough batch of crash testing on these clones and publicize the heck out of the results. They could then use that as a springboard for a humourous ad campaign about buying the real Smart as opposed to a fake. With China's virtually non-existant legal protections for consumers and business, this is really the only choice Mercedes has.
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GermanAmerican 6:17AM (9/13/2007)
Of course it's a blatant copy!
If the German public would have any balls they would pelt the bastards at the IAA with rotten eggs and tomatos.
Instead a bunch of PROF. DR. this and thats with three or four titles, etc. will give speeches on how important saving European intelectual property is. Then some high up EU guy will shake hands with them. Everyone will clap and there will be articles about what wonderful measures are going to take place to save those German workplaces.
As usual the German bureacracy will stall every measure to the point where the next fake Chinese model is successfully on the market.
When it is too late, everyone will cry, the unions will strike, jobs will be lost, the DR. DRs. will speak again, the people will clap, the newspapers will praise, the erosion will continue.
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