Beijing court rules for Honda in trademark lawsuit

The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ordered Chongqing Lifan Industry Group Co., a major private motorcycle maker, to pay 1.47 million yuan (about 18.5 million yen) in damages to Japan's largest motorcycle manufacturer, the officials said.

The damages to be paid are the biggest in a trademark dispute over motorcycles involving a Japanese maker, according to the Beijing office of the Japan External Trade Organization.

An official at Chongqing Lifan said the company has yet to receive the ruling.

Chongqing Lifan, which produces more than 800,000 motorcycles a year, had used Chinese characters for "Hongda" in the name of the company in the past, but took them out of the name after Honda warned them against it in 2001.

But it continued using the English version on its products, so the Japanese company filed the lawsuit in July 2002, according to the officials.

The Chinese motorcycle market had an annual production of about 15 million in 2003 and there are 150 major manufacturers.

The production of copied products is rampant in the industry, with some of them exported.