EVwire brief: A Dutch court has lifted Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) seizure of files taken from BYD's offices in the Netherlands and ordered the records destroyed, a setback for JLR in its fight over whether the BYD Ti7 copies the Land Rover Defender. JLR must instruct the bailiff or the court-appointed custodian holding the files to destroy them within 24 hours of formal service of the ruling, or pay 50,000 euros (US$55,385) for every hour it is late, up to 500,000 euros (US$553,850).
Judge H.F.R. van Heemstra of the District Court of The Hague issued the preliminary ruling in summary proceedings on November 11. The court found that JLR did not need the files to argue that the Ti7 copies the Defender, and that they were not needed to calculate damages either, since BYD has not sold the Ti7 in the EU.
The files were seized in August from BYD's offices in Schiedam and Hoofddorp, as EVwire previously reported. The court had authorised the seizure ex parte, so BYD had no chance to challenge it beforehand, and the records stayed with an independent custodian rather than going to JLR. BYD later argued that the seizure went too far and swept up unrelated research and development records.
The BYD Ti7, the SUV at the center of JLR's Defender design claims. Credit: BYD
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Details:
Beyond lifting the seizure, the court set strict terms for how the files are handled and turned down JLR's own claims against BYD. Here's what it ordered:
Proof of destruction: JLR must give BYD independent confirmation that the files were destroyed within 24 hours of their destruction. No party outside BYD, including JLR and the custodian, may keep access to the records.
No further enforcement: JLR is barred from taking further action under the original seizure authorisation, with a separate 500,000-euro (US$553,850) penalty for each enforcement action that breaches the order.
JLR's penalty claim rejected: The judge turned down JLR's demand for 500,000 euros (US$553,850) in penalty payments from BYD, finding provisionally that BYD had complied with the original seizure order.
Immediate effect: The ruling is enforceable right away, even if appealed.
Because the case was heard in summary proceedings (kort geding), the judge's findings are provisional and could differ from the outcome of a full trial. The original ruling in case C/09/713312 / KG ZA 26-1036 (ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2026:33114) now shows as withdrawn on the Dutch judiciary's database, rechtspraak.nl, which links instead to a corrected ruling the court issued on November 12. The correction fixes clerical errors that had ordered BYD, rather than JLR, to pay the legal costs.
The Land Rover Defender, the model JLR says the Ti7 copies. Credit: Land Rover
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Context:
JLR's fight with BYD is far from over. According to the ruling, the British automaker has also started separate summary proceedings over the Defender, claiming EU design right infringement at the District Court of The Hague and copyright infringement and slavish imitation at the Rotterdam District Court. Under EU rules, an unregistered design is protected for three years from its first public disclosure in the bloc, while a registered EU design can be renewed in five-year periods for up to 25 years.
JLR has been down this road before, with mixed results. The company won a 2019 case in China against Jiangling Motor over the Landwind X7, an SUV that closely resembled the Range Rover Evoque, but it lost bids to register the Evoque's shape as a trademark in the EU and the classic Defender's silhouette in the UK.
The legal fight comes as BYD gets ready to launch the Ti7 in the UK. The seven-seat Excellence AWD is priced at £47,995 (US$63,660), undercutting the £71,840 (US$95,290) Defender 110 P300e plug-in hybrid by £23,845 (US$31,630), with customer deliveries expected from January 2027.
The SUV has already proven popular at home, where it launched in September 2025 as the Fang Cheng Bao Tai 7 plug-in hybrid, priced from 179,800 to 219,800 yuan (US$26,955 to US$32,952). An all-electric version followed in April 2026, and the Tai 7 passed 300,000 cumulative sales on October 30, according to Fang Cheng Bao general manager Xiong Tianbo.
Source: CarNewsChina, ANP via Nieuws.nl, Rechtspraak.nl
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