On February 25, Audi sued NIO in court, claiming that the users would subconsciously mistake NIO ES6/8 for Audi S 6/8 electric models. Last month, the court ruled that Audi won the lawsuit and banned NIO from using the names “ES6” and “ES8” in Germany. As a result, NIO ES7 later changed its name to EL7 in Europe. 

Of course, the ruling is not final, and NIO said at the time that it would appeal the ruling and defend its legitimate rights and interests.

Although Audi has won the lawsuit for now, the trademarks “ES6” and “ES8” are still in NIO’s hands, so Audi asked the court to declare them invalid, and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) ruled this week that NIO’s ES6 and ES8 do not actually constitute confusion and rejected Audi’s request.

According to court documents seen by CnEVPost, the European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled on February 21 that NIO’s ES8 and ES6 do not constitute a likelihood of confusion with Audi’s S8 and S6, and therefore rejected Audi’s request. This means that Audi seems to be losing this long-running trademark war.

In other words, unless Audi can overturn the EUIPO’s ruling, NIO’s ES8 and ES6 trademarks will remain valid in the European Union.