Chery Automobile Co Ltd, one of the largest independent car makers in China, is facing another intellectual property rights (IPR) dispute shortly after settling one against world auto giant General Motors (GM).

This time around, Tencent, China's largest instant message service operator, has alleged that Chery's trademark QQ, used in one of Chery's best-selling models, the Chery QQ, infringed on Tencent's instant messenger name.

Song Yang, a Tencent spokesman, told China Daily yesterday that the firm is under urgent negotiations with Chery over a trademark dispute.

Tencent QQ is China's first instant messenger, launched and registered by Tencent in 1999. So far it has had more than 400 million users.

Chery also used QQ to name one of its economic cars launched in 2003; it applied to the Trademark Bureau of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for the registration of the trademark in 2003.

Tencent said it has formally complained about the alleged infringement, while Chery told China Daily there had been no IPR violation and said it was negotiating with Tencent.

According to the Shenzhen Economic News, Chery said Tencent did not register QQ as a trademark for use in the auto industry and QQ is not a highly-identified trademark but merely two letters. Representatives from Chery came to Shenzhen to negotiate with Tencent in 2003 but they failed to reach an agreement over the payment required by Tencent.

Both Chery and Tencent refused to reveal detailed information of the failed deal to China Daily yesterday.

In a lawsuit settled last month out of court, GM argued that QQ was a copy of the Chevrolet Spark, also known as the Matiz, designed by its GM Daewoo subsidiary in Korea.

Experts in the business said the dispute with Chery and Tencent was a complicated one and predicted it might lead to a lawsuit.

(China Daily December 1, 2005)