When Lotus isn't ... Lotus .

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87038

Proton: Team Lotus name not allowed
By Jonathan Noble Monday, September 27th 2010, 12:31 GMT

The Lotus Formula 1 team is facing the threat of possible legal action over its rebranding as 'Team Lotus' next season, as the row over the team's name moved up a gear on Monday.
Group Lotus parent company Proton said it would take 'all necessary steps' to protect its brand after claiming that Lotus F1 boss Tony Fernandes has no right to use the 'Team Lotus' name in Formula 1 next year.
Fernandes announced at the Singapore Grand Prix that he had acquired the rights to the 'Team Lotus' name from its previous owner David Hunt, and that he intended to rename his team for the 2011 season.
But in a statement issued on Monday, Proton said that it believed that Group Lotus was the owner to all rights surrounding the 'Lotus' name in the automotive sector - which included F1.
It suggested therefore that use of the 'Team Lotus' name in F1 would be a breach of its own rights.
The Proton statement said: "Last year, Tony Fernandes and 1 Malaysia Racing Team recognised this by taking a licence from Group Lotus to use the "Lotus" brand for the "Lotus Racing" team in the current Formula 1 season.
"With Proton's agreement, Group Lotus has now terminated its licence to 1 Malaysia Racing Team to use the "Lotus Racing" brand in the 2011 and future Formula 1 seasons as a result of the flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence by 1 Malaysia Racing Team, which were damaging to the "Lotus" brand.
"Following that termination, neither 1 Malaysia Racing Team, nor any other company associated with Mr. Fernandes such as Tune Group Sdn Bhd or Team Lotus Ventures Limited, has the authority of Group Lotus to use any "Lotus" brand in the 2011 Formula 1 season. This includes the use of the brand "Team Lotus".
"Group Lotus understands that Mr. Fernandes intends to rebrand the current "Lotus Racing" Formula 1 team to "Team Lotus" for the 2011 Formula 1 season. Mr. Fernandes indicates that Tune Group has acquired the rights to the name "Team Lotus" from a business formerly owned by David Hunt called Team Lotus Ventures Limited.
"roup Lotus believes these rights to have no proper legal foundation, a fact of which Mr. Fernandes was well aware when his company purchased them.
"PROTON will support Group Lotus in taking all necessary steps to protect its rights in the "Lotus" name, including resisting any attempts by Mr. Fernandes or his companies, or any other unauthorised person, to use the "Lotus" name in the 2011 Formula 1 season."
The growing dispute between the Lotus Group and Fernandes became clear last week when the road car company announced that it was sponsoring the ART GP2 team next year - in direct competition to Fernandes' own AirAsia outfit.
Proton's chairman Dato' Sri Mohd. Nadzmi Mohd made it clear that the company would do all it could to ensure that Fernandes did not run under the Lotus banner next year.
"We believe the Lotus brand to be one of the most valuable brands in Formula 1 today," he said. "We are the owners of this brand, and will take all necessary steps to protect it.
"Tony Fernandes has no rights to use the Lotus brand in the 2011 Formula 1 season, and we will strongly resist any attempts by him to use our brand without our permission and will withdraw our sponsorship of the Lotus Racing team."
"To put it simply, Group Lotus is everything Lotus. The fact that 1 Malaysia Racing Team entered into an agreement with Group Lotus to use the brand means that both Mr. Fernandes and 1 Malaysia Racing Team recognises and acknowledges Group Lotus' rights."

 

Hmmm... reading between the lines, what I'm seeing goes like this...

Proton sell Fernandes a license to use the "Lotus" name in F1.

Proton then see how much press Lotus Racing gets, which always mentions Lotus' historic place in the sport.

Proton get jealous and decide they might want the name back so they can play in GP2.

Fernandes sees this coming and buys license to use "Team Lotus" name in F1 from David Hunt.

Proton goes "Oh sh*t" and pitches a lawyer fit, with this press release the first attempt to sway public favor over to them through media propaganda.

 

Interesting..... Fernandes is no fool, and I *thought* that the big deal with this nausea was that the "Team Lotus" name was owned, lock stock & barrel, by David Hunt and not Proton.

The only winners here will be the attornies

Cheers,
Ian

 

What a joke...

 

If Proton expects to sway public favor to them by doing this, I think that it will have the OPPOSITE effect!

 

I think they're just aiming to get free and cheap publicity outta this...Tony should walk away from this project, and lets see how panic the Government will become...

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87042

Lotus insists it can use Team Lotus name
By Pablo Elizalde Monday, September 27th 2010, 18:37 GMT

Lotus Racing insists it can use the Team Lotus name in Formula 1, despite Proton's claims to the contrary earlier on Monday.
Lotus Racing announced last Friday that it would race under the Team Lotus banner in 2011.
Proton, a parent company of the Lotus Group, said today that Lotus team boss boss Tony Fernandes does not have the right to use the 'Team Lotus' next year, claiming it would take 'all necessary steps' to protect its brand.
Lotus Racing's CEO Riad Asmat insisted on Monday evening, however, that the team did have the rights to use Team Lotus.
"This year, we have established ourselves as the leading new team in Formula 1 as a licensee of Group Lotus, and, although we all dreamt of bringing Team Lotus back to where it belongs, we could not do so in 2010 because those rights were owned by Team Lotus Ventures," Asmat said in a lengthy statement.
"As Tune Group has now bought Team Lotus Ventures it means we can now use the Team Lotus name for 2011 and beyond. We are all delighted we can go into 2011 with total confidence in what we own, and what we can take to the track.
"However, given that this is contested by Group Lotus we think now is the time to clear this matter up so there can be no further arguments. We have therefore today issued proceedings in the English High Court for a declaration that Team Lotus Ventures has the rights to use the Team Lotus name and everything associated with that brand in relation to Formula 1.
"Racing under the Team Lotus name from 2011 means our licence with Group Lotus has now come to an end."
He said the row over the use of the Team Lotus name with Proton was a "non-issue".
"The licence debate really is a non-issue," Asmat added. "It was a simple licence, attached to a one-year sponsorship deal with Proton for 2010 alone, and in fact for a tiny proportion of the amount invested by the shareholders into the team - approximately 1.5% of the total budget.
"Unfortunately we never reached the point where we discussed extending that one year deal. When we signed our licence to compete as Lotus Racing with Group Lotus, they were very clear that we could not make any reference to Team Lotus as they had no rights at all to the Team Lotus name or its rights.
"In fact, in the licence agreement between 1Malaysia Racing and Group Lotus the use of the Team Lotus name is expressly prohibited as they had agreed contractually, as long ago as 1985, that they had not rights to use that name.
"That was obviously something we had enormous respect for, and made no attempt to change until we could do so rightfully, and with a very clear understanding of what we had acquired in Team Lotus Ventures.
"So now the licence we ran under this year has been withdrawn by Group Lotus, and while we accept that this obviously means we have reached the end of that chapter, it opens up a new and very exciting one for everyone in our team. There will have to be some discussions with Proton and Group Lotus about the entitlement to terminate the licence.
"Frankly, they are trying to say that some very trivial points, including T-shirt design approvals of all things, gave them the right to terminate, but we thoroughly reject this."

 

Seems to me the right thing to do is to turn this all around--really!

Rename the team Sutol Maet (Team Lotus spelled backwards) and tell Proton to go pound sand.....

With the right caligraphy the 'a' and 'e' could be turned around backwards so it actually WAS Team Lotus when read in a mirror.

Just think of how many $$$$ saved in lawyer fees.........

 

For those who find this confusing I have found this:

From http://sniffpetrol.com/2010/09/29/lotus-and-lotus-fight-over-lotus/

 

They should just change their name to Duesenberg and be done with it.