Mahindra-owned Peugeot Motorcycles has been told that it must stop selling the Metropolis three-wheeled scooter in France and Italy. Peugeot Motorcycles has also been asked to pay a heavy fine of 1.5 million Euros by a court in France, in addition to further penalties for infringement and legal expenses. The Piaggio Group seems to have won the first instance of patent infringement suits against Peugeot Motorcycles in Paris and Milan. Both the Tribunal Judiciaire of Paris and the Court of Milan had found Peugeot Motorcycles guilty of infringing a European patent on the technology of the Piaggio MP3 three-wheeled scooter with the Peugeot Metropolis model.
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Just last year, Mahindra-Owned Peugeot Motocycles' Metropolis was added to France's Presidential Fleet
The patent in question is owned by the Piaggio Group, and relates to the control system that enables a three-wheel vehicle to tilt sideways like a conventional motorcycle. The ruling of the Paris court also prohibits Peugeot Motorcycles on French territory from producing, promoting, marketing, importing, exporting, using and/or possessing any three-wheel scooter that uses the control system patented by the Piaggio Group (including the Piaggio Metropolis).
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The Piaggio Group has won a patent infringement suit which argues that the patent for the control system which allows for the three-wheeled Piaggio MP3 scooter to lean like a conventional motorcycles is owned by the Piaggio Group, and cannot be used in the Peugeot Motorcycles in the Metropolis.
The Court of Milan has prohibited Peugeot Motorcycles on Italian territory from importing, exporting, marketing and advertising (offline and online) the Peugeot Metropolis, with a fine of 6,000 Euros established for every vehicle sold after a term of 30 days from the announcement of the sentence. Peugeot Motocycles must also withdraw all counterfeit vehicles from sale in Italy within 90 days, on penalty of payment of an additional fine of 10,000 Euros for every day of delay in executing the order.
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The Piaggio Group's design of the iconic Vespa scooter is widely copied across the world, including by several Chinese brands.
The Piaggio Group has been at the forefront of launching legal action against several manufacturers it feels has infringed on its intellectual property. Most of these suits have been focussed on numerous Chinese manufacturers that used the iconic Vespa for inspiration, though rulings have so far only forbidden these brands from selling their products in the European market.
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The suit against Peugeot Motorcycles is seen as a clear sign that the Piaggio Group is willing to fight it out for infringements on its intellectual property. The suits against Peugeot Motorcycles are part of a wider range of activities against counterfeiting pursued by the Piaggio Group for years, involving continuous monitoring of competitor products and of international patent databases. Peugeot Motorcycles can appeal against both these rulings, but it's still not known how the Mahindra-owned brand decides to take its next course in this battle with the Piaggio Group.
