• The New York Times, Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:30 AM

The struggle over intellectual property rights between China and the West--a battle that has ranged over products from designer handbags to computer chips--now extends to cars.

Charging that the CEO, a Chinese sport utility vehicle, is a copy of its popular X5, BMW has filed suit to prohibit its sale in Germany by the Chinese carmaker Shuanghuan Automobile. And DaimlerChrysler is taking legal action against Shuanghuan to prevent it from selling the Noble, a subcompact that bears an uncanny resemblance to Daimler's Smart minicar.

"Naturally, our cars are inspired by European carmakers," says Karl Schl"ssl, a German who is CEO of China Automobile. "But we reject the charge that they are copies." Auto critics have said that while the rear end of the CEO is a dead ringer for the X5, the front end looks more like a Toyota Land Cruiser. And BMW has emphasized that under the hood, the CEO is no X5.

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