You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

Tesla Gets Smacked With Trademark Lawsuit in China A suit brought today by Zhan Baosheng, who registered the 'Tesla' trademark in China in 2006, could decelerate the electric car-maker's eastward expansion.

By Geoff Weiss

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Though Tesla recently announced it was unbolting its own trove of patents in the name of furthering electric vehicle technology, the company has just been smacked with a trademark lawsuit in China that could potentially deter its foray into the crucial car market.

Chinese businessman Zhan Baosheng registered the "Tesla" trademark in 2006 -- before the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company had ever ventured east. Today, Zhan's lawyer told Reuters he is demanding that Tesla "stop all sales and marketing activities in China, shut down showrooms and supercharging facilities and pay him $3.85 million in compensation."

Tesla, on the other hand, said in January that the dispute had been resolved, and began shipping its Model S Sedans to Chinese customers last April.

Related: Tesla's New Patent Strategy Makes Sense

The case will go before a Beijing court on August 5.

In the past, Tesla was in talks to purchase the "Tesla" trademark from Zhan, though the negotiations eventually collapsed, Reuters reports.

The electric car-maker is not the only American company to be targeted by patent trolls in eyeing a Chinese expansion. In 2012, Apple paid $60 million to end a legal dispute with Proview Technology -- a Chinese company that had registered the "iPad" trademark.

Related: Elon Musk: I'm Afraid of a 'Terminator'-Like Catastrophe

Geoff Weiss

Former Staff Writer

Geoff Weiss is a former staff writer at Entrepreneur.com.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Told Meta Engineers to 'Figure Out' Snapchat's Privacy Protections: 'We Have No Analytics on Them'

Recently unsealed court documents detail "Project Ghostbusters," Meta's project to work around Snapchat's end-to-end encryption to intercept data.

Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes surpassed $550 million.

Growing a Business

The Brand Whiz Behind Sun Bum Is Famous For Making Boring Products Fun. Then, This One Stumped Him.

Everything Tom Rinks touched turned to gold until he took on a brand launch at Target that fizzled. Then, he found a creepy doll on Ebay, and he saw a way forward.

Thought Leaders

How To Improve Your Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence in 7 Easy Steps

Using these simple but effective approaches will help a person in their business, life and relationships.