Global automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is well known for its luxury vehicles, buses, coaches, and trucks. The company is now expanding into electric cars and will create a new “EQ” sub-brand for a range of electric vehicles to include two saloons and two SUVs with plans to manufacture these in Germany and China. Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler AG has filed several EQ trade mark filings including: EQA, EQC, EQE, EQG and EQS to protect this new “EQ” sub-brand. The electric vehicles within the sub-brand are expected to have a unique style, separate from the look and feel of the main Mercedes brand image.
As China is reportedly the world’s largest electric vehicle market it makes sense that Mercedes-Benz would want to protect its electric vehicle sub-brand in that market. However Chinese based automotive brand Chery have lodged a formal complaint against Mercedes EQ trade mark applications because they feel it would infringe on their own trademarked “eQ” brand of electric cars which have been on sale for the last two years. Both companies’ trade marks are very similar and would be operating within the same sub-sector of electric cars being manufactured in the same market of China.
Source: http://bit.ly/2nL7cBI
