HMC Honda Motor Co Ltd

SHANGHAI—Tata Motors Ltd.'s Jaguar Land Rover suffered a setback in its effort to win a lawsuit against a Chinese auto maker that it says infringed a design patent for its Range Rover Evoque crossover.

China's State Intellectual Property Office has revoked both Jaguar Land Rover's patent for its Evoque as well as that for Jiangling Motors Co.'s Landwind X7 SUV, according to statements from the patent re-examination board posted earlier this month on its website.

Jaguar Land Rover had filed a lawsuit against Jiangling Motors, claiming that its Landwind X7 copied the design of its popular Evoque and that the Chinese company's behavior amounted to unfair competition, the company said Tuesday, without disclosing when the lawsuit was filed.

However, as JLR registered the design of the Evoque a year after its debut in the country, the patent it obtained is invalid because the design had been known to the public before its registration, according a statement posted on the website of China's patent re-examination board.

The request to invalidate JLR's patent was filed by Jiangling last year, said the statement.

In a separate statement, the patent re-examination board also revoked the Landwind X7's patent, at the request of JLR, saying that the Landwind X7's design isn't significantly different from JLR's Evoque.

The X7 bears striking similarities to the Evoque. It made its first appearance at a motor show in China's southern city of Guangzhou at the end of 2014, four years after JLR first brought its Evoque to the same motor show.

The Landwind X7 went on sale last year and quickly attracted buyers with its low price. In China, a Landwind X7 starts at 129,800 yuan ($19,700)—less than a third of the price of a Range Rover Evoque.

The companies could still appeal the board's decision.

A spokeswoman for JLR declined to comment on the decision by the Chinese regulator. Officials at Landwind, and its shareholders Jiangling and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. weren't immediately available for comment.

JLR is now in a weaker position in the lawsuit unless it is able to bring forward proof to persuade Chinese judges that the Evoque has enough recognition among consumers without its logo present, said Dong Wentao, a lawyer with Allbright Law Offices in Shanghai.

Xu Haidong, the assistant secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said at a recent briefing in Beijing that the government-backed industry group was closely watching the development of the lawsuit.

"In the past foreign brands didn't mind (plagiarism) because they thought Chinese brands were too small to pose a threat. The JLR case indicates that they might have felt the rise of Chinese brands," said Mr. Xu.

Experts say that it is difficult for a foreign brand to win a design patent lawsuit in China, as Chinese laws imply that they must register the design with the Chinese authority before they start to manufacture the product, regardless of whether the patent is already registered in the country of origin.

Honda Motor Co. filed a lawsuit in 2003 against now-defunct Shuanghuan, claiming that the Chinese car maker infringed its CR-V crossover design. After 12 years, a court in the northern Hebei province last year ruled against Honda, ordering it to pay 16 million yuan in compensation to Shuanghuan, saying that the lawsuit had seriously damaged the small Chinese brand.

Rose Yu

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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