Xiaomi's three exterior design patents for cars are challenged as invalid, with the opposing party being the manufacturer of Old Man Li vehicles: official on-site oral hearing scheduled for Thursday

Fast Technology, March 24 — Xiaomi’s SU7 and YU7 models are facing invalidation-announcement challenges from a microenterprise in Shandong involving three core design appearance patents.

The company launching this challenge is Shandong Yanlu New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd. With registered capital of 10 million yuan and only 20 employees, this small firm mainly produces low-speed electric three-wheeled motorcycles, commonly known as “old man’s joy” vehicles. Its core product is a three-wheeler under the Yunlei brand.

The three appearance patents at the center of this dispute are Xiaomi Automobile’s front bumper, rear bumper, and front headlight design. These components all constitute key visual features of the SU7 and YU7 models. The National Intellectual Property Administration will conduct an in-person oral hearing on March 26 in the morning.

Notably, the front headlight patent among them uses a special post-authorization layout. The application was submitted in January 2023 and only received authorization in March 2025. Its examination cycle lasts as long as two years—far exceeding the typical review timelines for appearance patents—making it widely seen as a classic “submarine patent” strategy.

Two months after the patent was formally authorized, Xiaomi Automobile applied for a patent right evaluation report. In the report issued by the National Intellectual Property Administration in May 2025, it has preliminarily confirmed the validity of this patent, providing Xiaomi Automobile with some legal support to respond to this challenge.

Since its establishment, Xiaomi Automobile has maintained a relatively steady record in the patent domain, and this dispute is its first patent-related administrative dispute. At present, neither side has issued any further official response to this matter, and the upcoming oral-hearing outcome will directly determine the fate of these three core appearance patents.

As a representative of new automakers, Xiaomi Automobile’s exterior design has long had very high market recognizability. The challenge it faces from traditional low-speed electric vehicle enterprises is not only a legal contest, but also reflects intense clashes in industrial design rights among automakers with different positioning.

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Byline: Snowflake