On March 18, 2020, China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) invalidated Daimler’s design patent No. 201430032306.6 of the new Mercedes-Benz Smart generation, following a validity challenge by a Chinese new energy vehicle company named Shandong Lichi.

The CNIPA holds that the two designs in the patent at issue, 2015 Smart Fortwo and 2016 Smart Forfour, have no obvious difference with the prior designs, which were published by media in some news. Prior to the priority date of the design patent at issue, a famous media platform, TenCent reported on the development of the new Smart model in 2012, indicating that the German auto giant Daimler was going to launch the third generation of Smart in 2014, alongside the profiles of Smart Fortwo and Forfour. Daimler, however, didn’t file relevant patent applications claiming its priority of August 21, 2013 in China until 2014.

Daimler is not the only automobile company whose patents have been invalidated due to advance publicity. In 2016, CNIPA held that the design patents of Landrover Evoque were invalid as Landrover unveiled Evoque at an automobile exhibition before filing for design patent.