Life is not always fair, and justice is anything but perfect.

Hey, maybe they should buy an American company, bleed it of all of its money and they could continue to sue the whole damn world.

Well the Chinese should call this the dumb car. Honestly, why can’t you come up with your own design, this car is almost an exact copy of the real smart car. I’m afraid to imagine this Chinese copy car in an accident. The real Smart car is surprisingly strong and very safe in accidents, just watch any youtube video of a Smart car crash test and your jaw will drop at how strong those little things are. The Chinese are unable to make sedans that are safe, this thing will squish like a can if it collides with a cyclist. Well one thing is for sure, China will not be selling any of these outside of China. Even in China most who want a stylish little car would rather spend the extra cash on the real thing.

I DON’T SEE NOTHING SMART ABOUT THIS CAR, IN A WRECK THAT’S IT YOU DUNN, FINITO, THE END, SAYANARA, BY-BY, THAT’S ALL FOLK’S……………

The Chinese will always copy and get away with it.

What Mercedes should do would be to run commercials comparing the two vehicles and seek to ruin the emerging good will for Chinese products. I know that is not fighting fair; however, we have clearly moved beyond a fair fight with Chinese manufacturing. The state of the courts in China still revolves around how much you are willing to pay the judge for your decision. Just ask New Balance (and they had one of the top international lawyers). Clearly the Italian justice system is not up to snuff either. Of course, what can you expect in a non-common-law jurisdiction? Obviously the Italian court does not understand that if someone switches on the news and sees the Chinese car and its occupant twisted into a knot that the viewer will not notice the finer differentiations in appearance. As for the price, how many of us know what a car on the street costs? Buyers may just end up believing they have found a great deal on SmartforTwos.

The pessimist in me is suspicious as to whether the court made its decision with an eye towards protecting Italian car companies from German manufacturers. And Chinese manufacturers would be savvy enough not to then go and bite the hand that is feeding them (i.e. you will not see as many copies of Italian autos). I am almost certainly wrong, but many of my law school professors have imparted a deep distrust of European law to me and those courts leave me with an even more bitter taste in my mouth when I consider this case.

1,3 billion people and they can’t even come up with their own unique car design…

wtf seriously?
that is a tin foil version of a smart car, line for line.

I’m discusted with them getting away with all this.

The Chines have no shame at all.

You can’t copyright an idea.

I thought that the picture WAS a Smart ForTwo with different headlights when i clicked on it to open this page.

The reason the Chinese can get away with so much copying (look at electronics) is because they don’t have copyright or patent laws. It comes down to whichever factory decides to buy into a certain design; and there can be multiple ones who do.

I hope Daimler doesn’t back down from this one.

Borat-

Yes, you can copyright an idea. It is called intellectual property and “Lets get ready to rumble” man knows all about it. You can get away with parodies (social satire is seen as a necessary facet of society), but you cannot poach the protected ideas of others.

You can copyright design or product, not an idea. Everyone is free to build cars with 4 wheels, yet it was Benz’s original. You can copyright pattern of color, use of numbers (800), but not an idea itself. When AT&T copyrighted 800 numbers, competition (MCI) came up with 700. Hummer has a grille akin to Jeep’s. Jeep (ChryCo) filed in courts and Hummer still has the same grille.

Borat-

You do not always win an i.p. case. They are hard to prove. However, ideas can in fact be copyrighted, so long as they are expressed in some form of work (e.g. a SmartforTwo). If you have access to lexis or westlaw, I suggest you do some research. If not, the government’s own patent website will provide you with material to mull over. The point remains that the SmartforTwo would qualify, by most people’s estimation, as an expression of an idea. The problem Mercedes would confront would be to show that their car was a full expression of what they seek to express from the Chinese. Honorable men can differ and I see from your second post that we agree far more than I had originally thought. I think Mercedes has a case. I also think they should have found a way to bring their case in a different jurisdiction; but, perhaps, the Chinese manufacturer had not put their auto into the stream of commerce of any U.S. jurisdiction where i.p. is far more stringently protected.

*. . . expression of what they seek to PROTECT from the Chinese.

Hyundai played this game initially if you remember. Not as blatant, but close. I guess since it worked for them the Chinese are gonna try the same thing.

To be fair….all you people need to pay Chinese the intellectual property right for using paper because they invent it.

There’s one of these that often parks on the street near here. I had to look pretty closely (i.e. at the front) before I could tell that it wasn’t a Smart.

To protect something like a car design in China, you really need a design patent, otherwise you’d have to rely on general unfair competition law, which is far from ideal. I’m too lazy to check whether Daimler has a design patent on the Smart, but I don’t think Smarts are even on sale in China so it wouldn’t surprise me if Daimler did not. Italy, of course, is another matter entirely.

China should sue all the foreign company who produce paper and people using paper without paying the copy rights (loyalties) including Daimler and people like your guys tons of paper every year. Now who has no shame??

Oh….by the way…..even your money is printed on paper.

Me Chinese me make fart me can replicate Daimler’s Smart.

elviososa-

As you are no doubt aware, the Chinese have been spending a lot of $$$ on “research” and propaganda to prove they invented EVERYTHING. Many cultures developed writing and some cultures developed things akin to paper. The Egyptians had their papyrus, but the oldest cave art/writing is in France. So, should the Chinese, whose earliest writing is on turtle shells and ox shoulders pay royalties on writing? Or, do you accept that these things happened before the advent of a modern legal system (something China still lacks)? Is it a little unfair that China is trying to re-emerge as a great power in the modern area? Yes, but that does not change the fact that China is a signatory to a number of treaties that should help to protect companies like Daimler.

China has EVERY RIGHT to strive to be the strongest nation on the face of the earth. Every person yearns to live in a great and just country. China is going through the phase that all industrial powers have gone through (regardless of their former great power status), which is the import of foreign ideas and technologies and then the improvement of those technologies to gain market share. And one can argue that every country who went through this process relied on some trickery and cunning. That aside, you cannot blame those of us who want to retain the status of our country as the preeminent superpower. It is certainly no more barbarous for us to use the courts to protect our international product standing than it is for China to utilize currency manipulation, cheap labor, trade irregularities, deficient/deadly constituent parts and other tactics to promote Chinese products. So get off your high horse and accept that international relations has always been down and dirty. No one here hates the Chinese because they are Chinese. However, many of us are angered when it seems like China is getting ahead in an unfair matter (no matter how much we recognize that is simply the way of the world).

Oh and one last thing elviososa-

Wo ai zhong guo ren!

They’re communists… what did you honestly expect? All I can say is that over reliance on Chinese **** is ruining the rest of the world. Unsafe cars, industrial chemicals tainting pet food and baby formula, lead paint on children’s toys… what’s next? Yet no one… NOT A SINGLE ENTITY in the whole world has been willing to stand up to them and say no. Someone, please say no to this crap! Tell the Chinese to start manufacturing products that are safe for consumers… or better yet, STOP IMPORTING THEM!

The new law passed by Congress just last month requires all goods marketted for children under 12 to be tested for lead content… reguardless of the country they are manufactured in. The testing costs $4000+ PER PRODUCT. Many small AMERICAN businesses cannot afford this testing and will be closing their doors over the next few months… putting even more people out on the streets.

All because someone didn’t have the balls to stand up to the Commies.

Last I checked, my money was made from cotton, not pressed wood (Chinese paper). However, as Lion Without Pride said earlier, Egypt used papyrus and Rome used parchment (predecessors to paper which the Chinese copied) way before China did. I think credit goes to Egypt for paper, and the Chinese just copied it like they do everything else. But I do give the Chinese credit for being the first to use paper to wipe their behinds.

And the Chinese did invent gun powder.

And the only true American foods are peanut butter and root beer.