MOSCOW, September 5 (RAPSI, Sergey Fekluinin) - Russia's Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) will hold preliminary hearings in the case of the largest South Korean motor company Hyundai Motor's lawsuit against Polish Solaris Bus & Coach company on December 16, the court's representative told RAPSI on Thursday.

Hyundai seeks to lift the legal protection of the Solaris brand, which belongs to the defendant.

The first of the three trademarks including the word Solaris was registered by the Polish company in 1999, the last in 2010. The lawsuit was filed on August 1, and did not go further until September 3 for procedural reasons.

Solaris Bus & Coach manufactures buses under the Solaris Urbino brand, Solaris Trollino trolleys, and Solaris Tramino trams. The South Korean manufacturer sells Hyundai Solaris cars in Russia. In the first half of 2013 this model became Russia's second most popular car (464,000 sold).

Hyundai Motor Co., formed in 1967,became worlds fifth largest motor company in 2007. Hyundais cars are sold in 186 countries worldwide.

Solaris Bus & Coach was founded in 2001 and manufactured licensed German Neoplan tour buses, later moving on to manufacturing their own models of public transportation vehicles.

IP Court was established in April to hear intellectual property cases both as a court of first instance and as a supreme court of appeals. It started working on July 3.