Jaguar Land Rover has been ordered to destroy or return documents seized from two BYD offices in the Netherlands, or face fines of up to €500,000 (£418,000), in the first ruling in its dispute with the Chinese carmaker over alleged copying of the Defender.
A judge in The Hague ruled yesterday that the seizure of evidence in August was unnecessary for substantiating JLR’s copying claims. JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata, accuses BYD of producing a lookalike version of its best-selling model in the Ti7 SUV.
Judge Hugo van Heemstra found that the material was not relevant to the copycat claims or to any potential financial damages for JLR, because the Ti7 is not yet on sale in Europe.
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