AMONG the latest Australian market entrants from China, Forthing has found itself in trademark turmoil with German performance car brand Porsche (and its Taycan model), and has made the decision to remove the Taikon 5 name from its debut model’s marketing materials for the foreseeable future. 

The trademark for the Taikon name is currently under opposition in Australia and New Zealand from both Porsche and its parent company Volkswagen. 

In the case of Australia, the oppositions have been made on the grounds of “substantially identical or deceptively similar trade marks” and that the “trade mark is similar to a trade mark which has acquired a reputation in Australia” according to the opposition filings on IP Australia.

Forthing national manager Shaun Garrard

Speaking with local media at the launch of its first model for the Australian market – which is currently being referred to as the Forthing Electric and Range Extender Hybrid as a result of the case  – the brand’s national manager Shaun Garrard addressed the decision to sideline the Taikon 5 name.

“We’ve taken this temporary precautionary step in Australia due to a trademark infringement issue that’s been raised by Porsche AG in another market that alleges that consumers could mistake a Forthing vehicle for some Porsche vehicles,” he said.

“While we are flattered Porsche feels this way and that they’ve expressed such strong interest in the Forthing brand. But until the issue is resolved, we’ll focus on promoting the Forthing brand predominantly, as opposed to the Taikon 5.”

Forthing Taikon 5

The ongoing case delayed the rollout of Forthing’s advertising campaigns for Australia, but now that they are up and running, the brand has seen a “steep increase” in customer enquiries according to Mr Garrard. “Now, this is just a risk mitigation approach for our marketing and our media in Australia. So, it has reduced the speed at which we’ve been able to get our national advertising campaign up and running in Australia,” he added.

“Although now, as of the middle of last month, we are active nationwide with a full media and marketing campaign for Forthing. And we are seeing a steep increase in enquiry and activity off the back of that campaign.” 

The case has also delayed the release of Forthing’s VFACTS vehicles sales reporting data. Mr Garrard says the brand doesn’t want two names appearing in the data.

“So I won’t share sales numbers at the moment. It is our intention to release VFACTS results and publish those,” explained Mr Garrard. 

“The only reason we haven’t is because we’re waiting for the outcome of the case in New Zealand. We don’t want to have two names appearing on VFACTS. That’s the reason we’ve done it,” 

According to Mr Garrard, an outcome of the case “taking place in New Zealand” is expected “towards the end of this year”.Mr Garrard stressed that references to the Taikon 5 have only been dropped from the brand’s marketing materials, and that dealers have not been requested to debadge existing examples.

The name will also still feature in the vehicle owner’s manual and in official government databases. 

“We’re not actively requesting that our dealers debadge the vehicles. We’re considering whether we debadge vehicles that we’re selling,” added Mr Garrard.

“But I do want to emphasise the point that we haven’t changed the model name in Australia. 

“So effectively for the purposes of registering the vehicles and for everything to do with ADR, so the RAV (Register of Approved Vehicles) and the ROVER system will all still contain Taikon 5.“The owner’s manual is still Taikon 5. We’re taking a risk mitigation approach by removing it from our marketing materials, and it’s a temporary solution at this stage.”

Several other nameplates have been and are currently used for the Forthing Electric and Range Extender Hybrid in other overseas markets including (but not limited to) T-Five, Xinghai X5, and Friday. 

However, no decisions will be made on the model’s name until the outcome of the case is confirmed according to Mr Garrard. 

“We are not considering other names at this stage. We’re waiting to see the outcome of the legal case before we proceed,” he said.