Force India has revealed that the English High Court has set a hearing period starting on 16th January 2012 to hear the intellectual property infringement claim against 1 Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd which currently runs Team Lotus, and against Italian-based Aerolab. 1 Malaysia Racing Team (UK) Ltd and Team Lotus’ Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne are also the defendants in the suit.
To refresh your memory, in November 2009 Force India claimed that Team Lotus (then known as Lotus Racing) was designing and building it’s 2010 contender with data and information supplied by Force India’s former wind tunnel operator Aerolab. Among the parts that were said to be identical with Force India’s Formula 1 car, was the front wing assembly.
Force India also said that Lotus Racing’s T127 wind tunnel model was sitting on tyres that have the handwriting of Force India’s staff. Force India which partnered with Aerolab through out the 2008 and 2009 seasons ceased the collaboration with the aerodynamics specialist in August 2009 due to the team’s concerns over a breach of confidentiality. Aerolab then started civil proceedings in Italy and in the UK against the team for the early termination of the service agreement. Force India subsequently paid a sum of one million Euros into an escrow account as a security.
Moving back to the subject of this report, it was also revealed that the Italian authorities are pursuing cases against 1 Malaysia Racing Team (UK) Ltd, Mike Gascoyne and Aerolab on the same intellectual property infringement issue. This means that the operators of Team Lotus have not only one, but two problems knocking at it’s door.
As you would also know, Team Lotus has an ongoing dispute with Group Lotus over the Lotus naming issue. Drama in this case is just an understatement.
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hah!? i also saw a story on espn saying that team lotus were the worst pay masters in f1 in 2010 http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/37732.html
why la mr tony must do all this things?
back than people will said our tax money use so many-many
Malaysia Boleh!
Mr. Tony should stay on Air, automotive racing don’t suit you. Go Lotus Renault, Go Mercedes GP Petronas!!!
he was from music industry when he buy his flagship company AirAsia..but look now…..
Putting a new twist on the F1 dramas…. on n off the tracks
Tony and Freddie Fenandes is the ‘Drama King’ lols..
the Drama will made they famous.. more money will come in.. remember? “show me the money” hehehe.. “something for nothing” …… ……..
now everyone want to bring team lotus to court.
at least we have something since the bahrain gp has been called off
good grief.
why cant both of my favourite indian teams get along? c’mon guys.. together we can conquer f1.
Hyped
I’m sick on seeing Lotus emblem with Team Lotus moniker, like 4 Audi rings with Team Lotus name to differentiate between the original and imitate. Or BMW kidney with team lotus name on the round background.
like a Lancer with Proton badge.
Like a Passo with Perodua Badge,
like a peugeot with naza badge..
i want race dates and lap times not court dates! boring! lets have the season begin already!
M gascoyne is already brain dead when it comes to designing F1 racers
all his design looks the same from toyota till now. Maybe there is you scratch my back i scratch your with aerolab. he should be sack from the team.
i think this will be hard to prove la..
there is a thing called ‘evolutionary convergence’ where solutions to tech problems converge to a common solution eventually. looking similar does not mean that things are being copied.
so having the handwriting of force india staff on the tyre is cause for the suit? hmmm, tyres are generic things anyway. i assume it is a scale model that they are talking about, and the lab does recycle those generic things in my opinion. those tyres are not force india’s intellectual property i would assume.
still, keeps tony busy. all the more important for him to get proton to fund his defence in this particular case…
….and the season hasn’t started yet!!
Stupid lah these F1, court case here and there talking about billions and billions while we the normal people bloody bleeding to death with rising costs each day.
Bad taste like nobody business
i am sure Tony, doesnt want to pay with a Vijay Mallya – the owner of Force India
read about him – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Mallya
F1 is losing its appeal. So they must generate some off-track controversy to keep the fans interested.
In the current degenerating world full of conflicts and crises, F1 would appear inconsequential. We should go watch Cricket.
so what ……..its not like ‘force’ india was a ‘force’ to be reckon with
may the force be with you
Dude, The guy who runs Force India is Vijay Mallaya a billionaire with right connections and contacts. Even if it is Tony I would keep a healthly respect for Vijay.
only when he is sober……(he’s in liquor business)
I’m sure Tony would do fine , he managed to get all kinds of sponsorship for the team , saw him once in his 360 spider near rain tree club (desa pandan)
Here is Vijay Mallaya’s car collection
http://mallyacollection.com/mallya/cars/list_only.asp?section=collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCe6DJwwnhY
He is more than a match for Tony.
Geee… if Lotus Racing did indeed copy Force India with Aerolab in cohorts (in itself not logical) , they must have done a piss poor job because they were no where near as quick as Force India, neither did their cars look similar.
Furthermore everyone in F1 knows Force India are lousy pay masters and are always screwing suppliers by not paying and then trying to settle out of court for bargains. Aerolab simply wanted to set an example for other suppliers screwed by Force India and they went legal openly with it.
Hard to prove ip infringement in a competition environment.
Real bollywood f1. Who cares abt the stolen designs – not that lotus won the championship with it last year….
any tweet from TF?agree with Alifz, both fernandezs are drama king.
sue them…sue them ALLLLL
regarding paying for tech…i can clarify than in an organized world class event such as f1…money is paid upfront for tech work…they work on a pay as u go basis..sort of like our top up for phones…they only can mess around regarding specific people or personnel as they control the pay much like normal employers do for the rest of us….
maybe proton new there was a storm in the horizon and bailed out….i guess tony and gang tried to do a man city or chelsea in f1 and gain rapid traction on the front runners in 2 seasons..but i guess in motorsport u need more than money to be strong..a perfect case study would have been toyota…for all the money they spent in the sport..(they had the highest budget for almost all the seasons they were in it) they really didnt move anywhere while we knew what happened to brawn on the other hand..lol…….the front runners are there due to the fact that they have the right amount of money,people ,precision planning,execution and yea..a a little luck as well i guess….renault as a set up has that in abundance as they were world champions not too long ago..that group lotus car is really gonna cause a stir…its a pity my driver is out for the season…oh well…..
Dear Mr. Tony Fernandes,
You are not Mr.Tony Stark and now you have to taste your own medicine.
mmmmm i think F1 trying to copy WWE (world wrwestling ent)……they have drama first……..everybody talk loud and piss off everybody……..get the fan work up then………settle it in the ring……………ANYBODY KNOW WHAT’S TONY IS COOOOOOKINNNGGGG…..
hmmm…i tot designs are more or less the same since it has to follow FIA regulations.
Few days ago, in MSM we can see dr M, Rafidah Aziz all seems very good friendly with Tony. Imagine the smart ex-Premier kena kencing with TF?
Proton sudah kena
It’s pure bullshit. It is Force India that is screwing suppliers, forcing them to take the race team to court and settle out of court for a bargain.
Remember that Aerolab vehemently indemnified Lotus Racing for any wrong doing when Aerolab decided to sue Force India for outstanding payments.
If Lotus Racing copied Force India why did the T127 not only look nothing like a Force India car, but also were no where near the pace of Force India. Don’t be fooled people.
The only thing Force India seems to claim is the tyres on the scale model which they say had ‘FI’ written on it. So if FI = Force India, then perhaps Lotus Racing was guilty of using a generic scale model tyre. I’m sure F1 teams don’t design tyres let alone scale model tyres.
This was all reported last year. Old news. Fact remains that Force India was sued by Aerolab for non-payment. Btw Aerolab won! and they chose to stand their ground and not go for out of court settlement. Thats the FACT!
You think TF/TL haters want to listen to you? This is a good point for them to whack TF/TL more even if the news is really quite a non-issue.
dude..even PM visits Nik Aziz when he was sick and talk warmly to Anuar in front of the press in Parliment lobby..
Well, given certain degree and characteristic, intellectual property can be easily proof in court. beside UK had CIPA just like us MyIPO..
whatever it is, both parties get attention.. nevermind the real F1., here comes the curries!!
tf, you really need karpal and gobind ‘s service. they are good a tell ya..
Why so many Team Lotus haters here huh?You think proton is perfect huh?Remember la Team Lotus is flying with Malaysian flag.Lotus renault?orang putih punya bendera and song.
I agree on this fact!! ‘Team Lotus is flying with Malaysian flag’ Totally agree..
ya semua org tahu kumpulan lotus adalah 100% anak syarikat proton.. 100% bro!!!