Jaguar Land Rover has orchestrated a raid on the European offices of BYD, the Chinese carmaker, as it builds a case that BYD’s new Ti7 SUV copies the design of its best-selling Defender.
Bailiffs seized digital documents from BYD’s offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp in the Netherlands in August, according to the Sunday Times. The Ti7 is due to go on sale in the UK in January 2027.
JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, is challenging BYD over claims that the Ti7’s boxy shape infringes its intellectual property rights. It hopes the seized material will show that BYD intentionally copied the latest generation Defender’s design, rather than simply producing a similarly styled vehicle.
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