Tesla decries tycoon’s patent lawsuit as ‘without any merit’
Print Edition
ELECTRIC carmaker Tesla yesterday denounced a Chinese businessman’s lawsuit seeking millions of dollars for alleged trademark infringement as an attempt to “steal” its property and “without any conceivable merit.”
Zhan Baosheng, said to be the founder of a cosmetics website in the southern city of Guangzhou, registered “Tesla” as a trademark in China in 2009, the China Business News said.
He also sought to trademark a T-shaped logo and the phrase “Tesla Motors,” it said, although those applications were still pending following objections.
Zhan filed a lawsuit against Tesla in a Beijing court last week, the paper reported, demanding it close its showrooms, service centers and charging facilities in China, terminate all sales and marketing activities in the country and pay 23.9 million yuan (US$3.9 million) in compensation.
Tesla, a groundbreaking manufacturer which has stressed that its Model S battery-powered car has the same base price in China as in the United States, slammed the lawsuit.
“There can be no legitimate dispute that Tesla created and used these trademarks long before Mr Zhan attempted to steal them from us in China,” it said in a statement. “Since Mr Zhan does not rightfully own the trademark at issue, it follows that his lawsuit is without any conceivable merit.”
Two separate Chinese authorities have previously cancelled the trademark “improperly obtained” by Zhan, and the suit is a “last-ditch effort in his unsuccessful scheme,” it added.
Tesla has also filed two lawsuits against Zhan “to obtain recompense for his theft of our property,” it said.
The firm’s China business has not been affected by the dispute, it added.
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