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News watch April 2012: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourMonday 30 April 2012• Kia posted global first quarter 2012 profits up 26%, with sales up 12% worldwide. 635000 new Kias found homes, 79000 in Europe (up 24.6% on 2011 in a total market which contracted 7.1%), with the USA now Kia's largest market ahead of Korea.

Mercedes to launch AMG branded baby SLS

AMG badged baby SLS coming Mercedes are to launch an AMG branded small sports car in 2012 based on a cut-down version of the Mercedes SLS. We’ve thought for some time it was almost certain that Mercedes would build a smaller version of the SLS to take on cars like the Porsche 911 and Audi R8. And back in October we got confirmation from AMG’s Christoph Jung that Mercedes and AMG are indeed working on a new, smaller SLS.

Hot Wheels and Icon in sandbox battle

As first reported by Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse, the toymaker Mattel has been accused of infringing on a trademark held by the low-volume vehicle builder Icon 4X4. Icon claims that a Hot Wheels toy being distributed worldwide is based on its Icon FJ40—which itself is based on the Toyota FJ40—and that Hot Wheels' use of Icon's design, promotional materials and the name “FJ40” violates trademarks held by Icon. In its response to Tuesday's Hooniverse post, Hot Wheels claimed that the toy is not based on the Icon FJ40, and that it has the right to use the term “FJ40” despite Icon's trademark.