A Dutch court just handed Jaguar Land Rover a setback in its fight with BYD over the Ti7's resemblance to the Land Rover Defender. The District Court of The Hague ruled on November 11 that JLR must destroy files it seized from BYD's Dutch offices, not keep building a case on them.
Judge H.F.R. van Heemstra ordered JLR to return or destroy the material within 24 hours of formal notice, under a penalty of €50,000 (about $55,000) per hour, capped at €500,000 ($556,000). The design dispute itself, whether the Ti7 copies the Defender, stays open.
The documents at the center of the case came from an August seizure at BYD's offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp. Court-appointed bailiffs executed it under a JLR-requested court order. The haul reportedly included Ti7 launch plans, technical data and financial records.
Van Heemstra found JLR never needed that material in the first place. The judge ruled the files weren't necessary to show the BYD Ti7 copied the Defender's exterior design, nor to calculate damages, since BYD hasn't sold the Ti7 in the European Union.
"The ruling lifts the evidence seizure but does not decide whether the SUV infringes JLR's intellectual property rights," van Heemstra wrote. The court also barred JLR from taking further enforcement action under its original seizure authorization.
BYD pushed back hard, calling the seizure an overreach that swept up unrelated research and development material. The court agreed the collection request was too broad and rejected JLR's separate bid for a surprise inspection of BYD's internal files.
Source link
