Asia Tech Wire (June 21) -- Chinese electric car maker Geely has been awarded about 640 million yuan (US$88 million) in a case against rival WM Motor for technology theft.
This month, the Supreme People's Court of China finalized an appeal that Geely had filed against WM Motor for infringing on technical secrets in its new energy vehicle chassis.
In the second instance, the court ordered WM Motor to pay Geely a total of approximately 640 million yuan in damages for economic losses and reasonable expenses incurred in defending its rights, which is a record high for an IPR infringement lawsuit in China.
Around 2016, nearly 40 senior executives and technicians of Geely's subsidiaries left the companies to work for WM Motor and its affiliates.
In 2018, Geely discovered that WM Motor had applied for patents on technical secrets related to it and launched the EX series of electric vehicles in a short period of time.
Therefore, in August 2019, Geely filed a lawsuit against four subsidiaries of WM Motor for infringement of trade secrets.
A court concluded in the first trial that WM Motor had infringed on Geely's technical secrets of five sets of drawings of chassis parts, and ruled that the former should compensate the latter with 5 million yuan in economic losses, as well as 2 million yuan in reasonable expenses for the defense of its rights.
Both parties appealed to the Supreme People's Court against the first instance judgment.
The Supreme People's Court finally held that this was a case of infringement of technical secrets arising from the organized and planned large-scale poaching of technical talents and technical resources of new energy vehicles by improper means.
The court ruled that WM Motor should compensate Geely about 640 million yuan.
However, doubts have been raised about WM Motor's repayment ability. In October last year, it filed for bankruptcy reorganization in China.
WM Motor was founded by Freeman Shen, a former vice president of Geely Holding Group who was responsible for Geely's acquisition of Volvo, the largest overseas acquisition in the history of China's auto industry.
