The Sur-Ron and Talaria legal battle has a long-term impact on how sourcing from China would likely change. For once, we are talking about IPs.
The Context
Sur-Ron, the Hangzhou-based successful electric motocross manufacturer, went to court against Talaria, another Chinese manufacturer of light motocross machines. Sur-Ron claimed that Talaria copied its design, specifically the Light Bee platform. The Light Bee is one of the most popular light motocrossers in the US market, the primary market for both Talaria and Sur-Ron.
It doesn’t help that both companies have factories in Chongqing. It’s even worse that Talaria was created by some ex-Sur-Ron executives, something the courts would have taken note of.
After a three-year legal battle, Sur Ron has now received a favorable judgment from a federal jury in the Western District of Texas, US. The judgment awards Sur-Ron USD 10 million in damages from Talaria.
It’s not surprising that the ruling came from a US court. A Chinese court would have unlikely to take such a stance. That’s what the executives at Talaria also thought when they created the Sting. However, it is the US, not China, that is the biggest market for both parties.
The Challenges with Motocross Design
Arguably, a motocross creates challenges for any motorcycle designer. There are fewer lines to play with, and the A-surfaces are limited. The frame has to be an integral part of the design, and extreme lightweighting all around means that there are fewer industrial design options to play with. However, designers do, and still create, significant differences in design. IPs are to be respected.
For the right context, here is the Sur-Ron Light Bee next to a Talaria Sting. For a better understanding of motocross design nuances, we also put a Zero XB in the same image.
We can understand Sur-Ron’s grouse. Being a first mover in the market, the brand has created success for itself. For someone else to come and copy a line-by-line copy of the design can be frustrating.
USD 10 million is also a significant damage to Talaria. These are not very large companies, and this would be a setback. Not to mention, it’s back to the drawing board for at least one of their product lines.
Inspired Design: The Chinese Way
IP protection has never been the strong point of Chinese innovation. If a product is successful anywhere, we can trust the Chinese factories to copy that. Forget global brands, the Chinese have no qualms in copying one of their own. A few weeks back, we spoke with Sieghart Michielsen, the Director of International at Niu, and one of our questions was why Niu’s wildly popular signature ring headlamp design is copied so little within the Chinese ecosystem. Sieghart admitted that they regularly pursue the offenders to keep things under control, yet some of them slip away.
That, in a nutshell, explains why the Chinese ecosystem is frustrating for anyone defending their IP, especially the design ones. Piaggio tried that and gave up.
Then there is the Chinese factory system
With whitelabeling as the core business, things are even murkier for Chinese factories.
As I write this, I have a podcast review of the Brixton Crossfire 500XC playing on YouTube. Brixton is a brand owned by the KSR Group, one of the largest two-wheeler distributors in Europe. The motorcycles comne from a Chinese factory. The presenter reminds me that the same motorcycle is sold under at least three different brand names across the world. Clearly, KSR is just one of the customers, wrapping a Chinese factory motorcycle in a British name and styling. This is something we are aware of, but the presenter serves a stark reminder again of how the Chinese factory system has changed the way the world looks at motorcycles.
It’s even worse when it comes to electric where whitelabeling things are even easier. We have already reached the point where e-motorcycle startups look for ‘hardware suppliers’ on which they can flash their software.
In that context, the Talaria ruling is a massive step back. Hopefully, this would change how Chinese companies look at design IPs, at least for current products. What will likely not change is European whitelabelers getting electric scooters with Vespa styling.
What will also not change is anyone challenging the design IP of the few million Chinese kit scooters that would be offloaded this year in markets across the world.