Dutch court orders destruction of BYD records seized by Jaguar

The District Court of The Hague has lifted Jaguar Land Rover’s seizure of documents belonging to Chinese carmaker BYD, ordering the British company to arrange their destruction and stop enforcement measures based on the seizure.

The ruling, issued on 11 November in interim proceedings, concerns Jaguar’s accusation that BYD copied the design of the Land Rover Defender in its Ti7 model. It does not decide whether BYD infringed Jaguar’s design rights.

Jaguar had seized BYD records relating to the Ti7 as evidence. The court ordered Jaguar to tell the bailiff or court-appointed custodian to destroy the seized data within 24 hours of the judgment being served and to provide BYD with confirmation once destruction had taken place. It also ordered Jaguar to halt enforcement measures under the seizure order.

Nieuws.nl, reporting for ANP, said the court considered the documents unnecessary to establish either copying or the extent of Jaguar’s alleged damages, as BYD had not sold the Ti7 in the European Union. That explanation was not included in the accessible summary of the ruling. The case was heard as an interim-relief proceeding, so the underlying design dispute remains unresolved.