Formula 1: Group Lotus and Team Lotus to settle it out in London court
Finally, after a lot of conflicts and controversies, it seems that Group Lotus and Team Lotus will go to the London High Court on 24 January, 2011 to settle out the issue.
This means that the court will not have a lot of time to come up with an agreement between both of these parties since the 2011 season is pretty near.
Group Lotus and Team Lotus were unable to come up with an agreement between themselves over the rights to use the name “Lotus” and both of them literally fought against each other over it in the media.
Recently, Group Lotus Chief Executive Officer Dany Bahar stated that this matter could be solved without going to the court which seems surprising since both parties have had quite a difficult time recently with each other.
It all started when Group Lotus left Team Lotus after the 2010 season and later on, joined Renault as their partners. As a result, RenaultF1 changed its name to Lotus Renault GP and now, it is expected that there are going to be two Lotus teams on the track.
Both Group Lotus and Team Lotus have appointed their respective lawyers for this case. Group Lotus is expected to apply for a summary judgement next Monday at the High court which would require a subsequent trial.
Other than the naming licence issue, there are a couple of other matters which will be resolved through this whole procedure as well. It is believed that Group Lotus has been using the original Colin Chapman owned Lotus’ legacy and name in its promotional
material which was strictly forbidden according to the five-year deal between the two sides.
However, Team Lotus’ CEO Riad Asmat stated that Team Lotus is going to keep pushing for its plans for the 2011 Formula 1 season and they believe that they will not have to rebrand in order to proceed to the new season.
“We know we are Team Lotus, so it's really not an issue for us. It [the dispute] is what it is. We have a five-year plan. It's unfortunate they decided to go their own way for reasons which to me are trivial,” Asmat told the media.
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