EV company can no longer sell car with Xiaomi founder's name

A Beijing court found Lei Jun Electric named after Xiaomi’s CEO infringed on the smartphone company's trademark

The founder of smartphone maker Xiaomi couldn't have been pleased when he found out his name was being used as an electric car brand. But that was rectified this week when the Beijing Intellectual Property Court ruled that Weifang Ruichi Automotive Systems infringed on Xiaomi's trademark by naming one of its cars Lei Jun Electric, capitalizing on the name of Xiaomi's CEO.

The case had been ongoing since 2015, with Xiaomi arguing that naming a car Lei Jun caused confusion among buyers and infringed on its trademark. The "creative" EV company also gave Lei Jun Electric a logo similar to that of Xiaomi. Xiaomi also sued the advertisement firm hired to promote the ill-named car.

Weifang Ruichi, on the other hand, argued that the name was no big deal because there are at least 6,179 people in the country named Lei Jun. The court was unconvinced, awarding Xiaomi 400,000 yuan (US$57,500) in damages, Beijing News reported on Tuesday.

The practice might seem odd, but China has a history of fighting to trademark famous names. Last year, a company threatened a popular vlogger with legal action after trademarking his birth name. The country's Olympic medal winners have found their names being used to sell pig feed and underwear. But the record goes to Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, with different companies trying to trademark his Chinese name (Ma Yun) 20 times.

(Abacus is a unit of South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba.)

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