Straight Talks: New players, new rules - IP disruption in the automobile industry
On May 28, 2024, Colorado became the fifth state to adopt a “right to repair” law, with Governor Jared Polis signing HB 1121, the “Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment” bill. Colorado now joins California,...more
Sales of consumer products through online marketplaces have been commonplace for years and account for a significant portion of the total consumer products marketplace. Sellers of industrial products such as replacement...more
Automotive OEMs, suppliers, startups and other participants in the automotive ecosystem have a great deal to do in 2023 as manufacturers begin to move to diversify historical internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle product...more
In recent years unexpected supply chain disruptions made it difficult for some automotive suppliers to manufacture components needed to fulfill their downstream orders on time and on budget. Although looking to alternate...more
The new trends of motorization, intelligence, networking, and shared service of automobiles are leading to a global reform and becoming industrial technological highlands across the world. They are included in the strategic...more
Recent years have witnessed accelerated advancements in, and commercialization of, electric vehicle, autonomous vehicle, connected vehicle, and other vehicle and mobility technologies. Similarly, the expertise and resources...more
With the dramatic expansion of e-commerce in automobile sales in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, many now predict that this shift to online will create a permanent change in automotive retailing and...more
On 11 August 2020, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Ninth Circuit”), in a unanimous opinion by Judge Callahan, reversed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) win in the district court...more
On August 11, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decisively reversed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC or Commission) controversial district court win challenging Qualcomm’s licensing practices. In...more
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s ruling that Qualcomm violated the Sherman Antitrust Act through its licensing and sales practices related to cellular microchips, resulting in a defeat to the Federal Trade...more
On Tuesday, August 11, 2020, the Ninth Circuit reversed and vacated Judge Lucy Koh’s controversial, post-bench trial decision in FTC v. Qualcomm Inc., 411 F. Supp. 3d 658 (N.D. Cal. 2019), regarding whether Qualcomm violated...more
The Chinese Supreme People's Court ("SPC") recently handed down its latest judgment on whether Original Equipment Manufacturing ("OEM") may constitute trademark infringement in China. In its judgment, the SPC refines its...more
The rapid increases in demand for connected, electric, and hybrid vehicles – together with the associated infrastructure – means that effective cooperation among OEMs, suppliers, regulators, and other stakeholders is now more...more
In the not-so-distant past, the automotive industry sought to be mostly self-sufficient. That is to say, that when an automobile manufacturer (commonly referred to as an OEM) wished to add a new feature to one of its...more
Our China team and Hogan Lovells Fidelity have recently secured an important victory for WAWI Xiamen (Chinese subsidiary of the leading German chocolate manufacturer Wawi Group), successfully defending it from a 3D trademark...more
Last year, right holders in China have seen a number of major developments including; a milestone Supreme Court judgment dealing with trademark squatting, new specialized cyberspace courts, a new E-Commerce law, clarification...more
Not long ago, an automotive “innovation” meant a new way of engineering a powertrain or emissions system, which would then be patented by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or supplier. A “gentlemen’s agreement”...more
OEM is a business model whereby a trademark owner orders its products from a manufacturer, often located abroad, who manufactures and supplies products branded with the purchasers marks instead of his own marks. In China,...more
In recent years, OEMs have been growing their design patent portfolios at a rapid pace. Specifically, OEMs have been securing patent protection on replacement parts, including bumpers, fascias, light fixtures, mirrors, hoods,...more
China has been the factory of the world for the past few decades. Countless foreign brand owners have taken advantage of the low-cost manufacturing environment and have flocked to the middle kingdom to source their goods –...more
As the automotive industry rebounds from its recessionary levels to an all time record level of spending on vehicles and healthy profitability, one of the key drivers of the increased vehicles sales has been increased...more