And likely they were not “knock-offs” but the real deal.

I used to work for a sneaker company that used Korean production facilities.

After filling their sneaker order for the USA, they would keep the assembly line running and make the exact same sneaker (sometimes with cheaper leather) and leave the trademarks off and then sell them in the overseas market.

In many cases, the copy was exact, because it came off the same assembly line.

That is the risk of using China or Korea for production. You give them a product design and the know-how and they run with it.

Typically this means a Patent, Trademark, or Copyright.

Since the CEO trademark is nothing like BMW X5, we can toss that right out.

Copyright is an interesting aspect – are they claiming the exterior shape of the X5 is a sculpture? If so, this would be an interesting claim – and likely not a sucessful one.

Patent – under traditional utility Patents, this would also not apply.

Design Patent – called industrial design registration in europe. If BMW did not file for one in ITALY or the EC, then they cannot sue for infringement. This is what may be the case here. Also, Design Patents, at least in the USA are very narrow in scope – copying part (the arse end) may not be enough to find infringment.

If this was infringment, could the many styling cues of the Z3 be said to infringe earlier cars? It does open a can of worms here.

If this case were allowed, than what about Mitsubishi’s BMW clones, or the use of Bangle design features by the Koreans? Dos BMW own the Hoffmeister kink? I think not.

There are other claims, at least in the USA – trade dress, for example. But I am not sure they are allowed in Italy. BMW would have a good trade dress argument here. And no registration is required.

The upshot is that the “CEO” is a Chinese made piece of crap – and no one is buying many of them. Wanna-be lookalike cars do not scream “quality” but rather “lame-o”.

It’s like those cheap Rolex knock-offs they sell on the streets of NY for $20. No one, not even for a minute, is fooled by them – even at 20 paces. And you look like a jerk-off if you wear one.

FWIW

I also know of *another* guitar company who stopped sourcing from japan and went to china, only to discover the design popping up elsewhere.

There’s countless other examples of this. It’s a big problem in the high-end audio world, where distinctive designs are cloned without any regards to IP, patents, etc.

http://www.forgings.com.tw/images/home/h-6.jpg
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=1729&sc=hf

Same goes for the “Rolexes” you can buy from that guy on the street corner.

And every seedy gas station in the country that sells “Coach” purses…

Some people want the status that accompanies a high-end product on a Wal-Mart budget (or cheaper). Others understand that status means jack if the product doesn’t have the quality to back it up and refuse to waste their money on poorly-made clones.

Will the Chinese sell some cars if they set up shop here in the US? Absolutely. Will they be rivals with BMW, Merc and Audi in quality? Absolutely not. Anyone that thinks otherwise is in serious need of a reality check.

you’ve got to be kidding, you need to lay off the cool aid.

What’s this commie-auto industry crap talk?! Why the hell would I like ANYTHING over a German(maybe an Italian bull or prancing horse) car?

The Chinese market is known for ripping off designs of competitors and then marketing it as it’s own. One of the top sales reps in my family’s company is invested in another company that produces a product in China. He was floored when he found that his product designs had been ripped off by a factory that was literally down the street from the one his product was made at in China. What happened? Some guy got fired/quit and went down the street and gave them the design and so they altered it enough to not get sued into the ground the started selling it.

Frankly, the CEO is complete HORSESHIT as it obviously takes major, MAJOR styling points and designs from BMW and then throws it into the lump of shit.

As a car enthusiast, this kind of marketing and production is a slap in the face.

Do you have any logical reasoning to back up this statement?

If you say the CEO is a copy, then what do you say about Audi that blatently copy BMW designs like flaming suface, MMI, etc. As long as it is not identical, it is OK. That’s why people come up with new models all the time. The new X5 is out already…. so what are they worried about.

In fact, you all may dislike the Chinese car makers now, but gve it 5 years and you’ll see that they will be better than BMW and Audi and Merc. So watch out!

But why support one communist regime, while fighting another one(Russia)…

Agreed. the US economy is boned – we’re a consumer nation and we’re about to pay for it…hardcore.

The rear end of the SUV, though, has X5 written all over it.