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BMW loses Clonewars Italian court battle

Nodz86

By Nodz86,
in Automotive Discussion

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Nodz86 Grand Master

Nodz86

Posted
    Posted

    BMW loses Clonewars Italian court battle

     

    by Michael Harley on Dec 19th 2008 at 7:59AM

    chinese_bmw_580.jpg

     

    Take a close look at the image. A court in Italy has just ruled that the crossover pictured above, the five-seat CEO built by Shuanghuan Automobile of Shijiazhuang, China, is not a clone of the BMW X5. Um... yeah. The legal battles began when Shuanghuan introduced their "Noble" last year, a near-clone of the Smart fortwo. Mercedes-Benz wasn't impressed, and threatened a lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, BMW started losing sleep over the Chinese CEO, an obvious facsimile of their previous-generation X5 (E53). The Bavarian automaker took Shuanghuan to court in Munich this past summer and won their case, and when Martin Motors (the distributor of Shuanghuan Automobiles in Italy and central Europe) started selling the CEO in early 2007, BMW again took legal action, this time in the Italian judicial system.

     

    Last week, the Germans met their defeat when the Italian courts rejected their claims. To date, Martin Motors has sold about 200 copies of the CEO and expects to sell about 1200 this year in their European markets. "We are convinced the CEO wasn't a clone of the X5. We are happy to see our view supported by a court ruling," said an obviously pleased spokesperson from Martin Motors. We have to wonder how quickly the Italians would change their tune if Shuanghuan began to knock-off the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4.

    [source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

     

     

    From Autoblog

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    t. Grand Master

    t.

    Posted
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      BMW are really pissed of now...:p

      Thanks for that captain obvious.

       

      It will be a trash car bought by people who wouldn't have been able to afford an X5 anyway. There is an obvious similarity but they have managed to do just enough to ruin the X5 design.

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      Guest RB26DETT

      Guest RB26DETT

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        Btw, who would take this relatively unknown brand over a BMW anyway?

         

        posers. :p

         

        and i thought ssangyong or however you spell it was terrible at first with their mercedes clones.

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        • 2 weeks later...
        Shy Guy Grand Master

        Shy Guy

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          lol, I remember one guy at my old school said that he had amazing cars, he said his mom(his parents were divorced btw) had a Chairman Limousine(The car that RB/Only599 posted) and I thought it was german :p but I just knew it was korean lol.

           

          Actually MB gave them an E Class platform for that car I think...

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