The dust of the "BAIC" dispute has settled, and the Beijing Intellectual Property Court upheld the original judgment in the second instance that BAIC Group won the lawsuit. Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant cannot continue to be referred to as "BAIC"

Recently, the highly anticipated case of BAIC Group v. Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant (referred to as "the Plant") for unfair competition has reached its second instance verdict. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court has determined that Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which has separated from the BAIC Group system, has no right to continue using enterprise abbreviations containing the words "BAIC". The court has ordered it to cease use, eliminate the impact, and compensate for economic losses. The second instance court ruled that the "Trademark License Agreement" signed between BAIC Group and the manufacturer in 2011 only authorized the manufacturer to use the "BAIC" trademark in the promotion of automobiles, chassis, and related products, and did not allow it to use "BAIC" as a company name or abbreviation. 'BAIC' has formed a stable correspondence with BAIC Group, and the manufacturing plant continues to use the word 'BAIC' for promotion, subjectively with the intention of attaching goodwill, which objectively easily causes confusion and misidentification among the public, constituting unfair competition. Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant has a history of 75 years. In 2015, it was transferred from BAIC Group to Fulu Group. In 2023, Weiqiao Group took over and relocated its headquarters to Qingdao. In 2024, Luqiao announced in a high-profile manner that it would upgrade the classic 212 off-road vehicle from a single model to an independent brand, with the words "BAIC" appearing in both the body and corporate promotion. This directly led to BAIC Group issuing consecutive statements clarifying that it has nothing to do with it and filing a lawsuit against Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant for "anti unfair competition". In November 2025, BAIC Group won the lawsuit, and Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant subsequently filed an appeal. The second trial result means that Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Plant will no longer be referred to as "BAIC" for short.