On March 5th, HiPhi issued a statement in response to the lawsuit filed by FF (Faraday Future), denying that Chinese entrepreneur Ding Lei and related companies of Human Horizons have infringed upon its trade secrets and engaged in unfair competition. The original statement is as follows:
Our company and Mr. Ding Lei have not engaged in any plagiarism or infringement of FF Company’s trade secrets, intellectual property rights, nor unfair competition.
The mass-produced HiPhi X / Z / Y series models developed by our company are independently developed by us or jointly developed with supplier partners, possessing independent intellectual property rights. The exterior design patent of our HiPhi X has been awarded the Gold Prize for Exterior Design at the 23rd China Patent Award jointly issued by the National Intellectual Property Administration and World Intellectual Property Organization.
Our company has been established for 6 years, and neither our company nor Mr. Ding Lei has ever received a lawsuit from FF Company before.
We will protect our company and founder’s rights and reputation from infringement through legal means.
On the morning of March 5th, Faraday Future suddenly announced that FF and its Chinese subsidiary filed a lawsuit against Ding Lei, former senior executive of FF and founder of Human Horizons, on the grounds of infringing trade secrets and unfair competition at the Intermediate People’s Court in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Faraday Future hopes the court will order compensation for corresponding losses, and further demand that Human Horizons immediately cease infringing on commercial secrets related to FF 91, as well as immediately stop the alleged unfair competition behavior.
The founder of Faraday Future, Jia Yueting, also stated in a post:
After long-term investigation and preparation, FF officially filed a lawsuit today against Ding Lei and HiPhi for suspected theft and infringement of FF’s intellectual property rights, technical data, and trade secrets.
During his nearly two-year tenure, Ding Lei earned up to three billion yuan in income while learning about FF’s new AI, internet car-making concepts, and knowledge. However, taking advantage of his position, he has been plotting and implementing the theft of FF’s intellectual property rights, technical data, and trade secrets. After leaving the company, he colluded with HiPhi to continue these actions which led to the rapid launch of plagiarized products within an extremely short period well below industry norms. The alleged illegal or criminal behavior by Ding Lei and HiPhi not only caused significant economic losses to FF but also brought shame upon the industry by seriously damaging its innovation drive and distorting its values.
For a long time now, Ding Lei and HiPhi have misled the media users investors through false disclosures communication while continuously tarnishing FF’s reputation causing significant harm.
We request that the court order Ding Lei Human Horizons and HiPhi to compensate for FF’s substantial commercial losses immediately cease using confidential information involved stop producing selling infringing products immediately halt any alleged unfair competition practices.
We are also preparing further legal action globally including in the United States thoroughly defend FF investor rights healthy industry rules.
It is time expose ghosts uphold justice…
SEE ALSO: Chinese EV Start-up HiPhi Halts Production for Six Months
According to public reports, Ding Lei, the founder of HiPhi, worked with Jia Yueting at LeEco Auto from 2014 to 2017. Ding Lei served as the co-founder of LeSEE (Super Electronic Ecosystem), global vice chairman, and CEO of China and Asia-Pacific region.
In 2017, Ding Lei announced on Weibo that due to personal health reasons, after careful consideration and full communication with LeEco founder Jia Yueting, he decided to no longer serve as the global vice chairman of LeSEE, CEO of China and Asia-Pacific region. However, he will be invited to serve as a strategic consultant for LeEco Ecological Research Institute to continue supporting the development of LeEco’s automotive ecosystem. Subsequently, LeSEE also reposted the relevant statement and wished Ding Lei a speedy recovery and continued support for the development of LeEco’s automotive ecosystem.
After leaving LeEco, Ding Lei founded Human Horizons in the same year and launched the high-end smart electric vehicle brand – HiPhi. On September 25, 2020, HiPhi X was globally launched during the Beijing Auto Show.
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