Astons are nothing if not beautiful, and like every car manufacturer out there, the company holds its intellectual property—in this case, its designs—very dear. So Aston Martin did not particularly appreciate its former designer, Henrik Fisker, rolling into the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance with the Thunderbolt, an admittedly gorgeous “design study” that looks an awful lot like one of Aston’s own cars. In fact, it was one of its cars, the Vanquish, which Fisker mildly re-bodied, making it look an awful lot like another one of its cars, the vaunted, million-dollar One-77.
-Enter lawyers, stage left.
--“Today Aston Martin filed a lawsuit in the state of California to protect its valuable trade marks, designs and intellectual property rights,” said Aston Martin’s official statement, written in British. “This lawsuit centres on Henrik Fisker’s creation and promotion of automobiles that Aston Martin contends infringes Aston Martin’s rights, by an improper and unauthorised attempt to exploit and free-ride off them. Aston Martin regards such conduct as wholly unacceptable and reserves all rights available at law to challenge it.”
-According to Aston Martin spokesman Matthew Clarke, Fisker’s people tried to get Aston’s blessing before showing the car, but Aston did not provide it. “He reached out early on in the process and we clearly expressed concerns and were led to believe the concept would head in a different direction.”
-For the record, Fisker and production/distribution partner Galpin Auto Sports presented the Thunderbolt a “design study.” If there was sufficient interest in a production model, said a Galpin spokesman, a slightly different version of the car would be produced with changes meant to appease Aston Martin in the end, (see the red car, below) whilst presumably looking at least something like the design study that garnered interest in the first place.
-Clearly, that didn’t appease Aston Martin—you can read the whole complaint here—and the company doesn’t mince words:
-“Specifically, the Thunderbolt prototype car featured confusingly similar variations of Aston Martin’s grille and side vent trademarks as well a facsimile of its wings logo, all of which infringe Aston Martin’s trademark rights. But this was only part of Fisker’s calculated plan to improperly exploit Aston Martin’s proprietary rights and free-ride off its reputation for his own gain. Fisker has also employed and continues to employ illegal ‘bait and switch’ marketing tactics to sell his Thunderbolt prototype car. Fisker’s advertising pictures a vehicle with confusingly similar variations of Aston Martin’s grille and side vent trademarks and wings logo, but the vehicle Fisker actually intends to sell is a different car entirely (which also infringes Aston Martin’s proprietary rights). Additionally, Fisker has repeatedly referred to the Thunderbolt prototype car as being based on Aston Martin’s VANQUISH automobile, when that is simply not true. Fisker has even gone so far as to intentionally and willfully induce a long-time Aston Martin dealer into participating in his scheme, thereby causing the dealer to breach its dealer’s agreement with Aston Martin to sell and promote only genuine Aston Martin vehicles and to not use Aston Martin’s trademarks to sell non-Aston Martin automobiles. Fisker’s motives are clear—by associating the Thunderbolt with an Aston Martin dealer, consumers will be further duped into believing that the Thunderbolt is an authorized and genuine Aston Martin automobile, even though Fisker never obtained Aston Martin’s permission to publicly display the Thunderbolt, and Aston Martin repeatedly and strenuously objected to Fisker’s promotion and sale of the Thunderbolt.
-“Not surprisingly, although it has only been a week since Fisker introduced the Thunderbolt prototype car, many automotive enthusiasts and the press have already mistakenly identified Fisker’s Thunderbolt as an Aston Martin vehicle because of the Aston Martin design features Fisker took from Aston Martin and Fisker’s deceptive and misleading advertising used to promote and sell his vehicles—advertising that is chock-full of Aston Martin’s trademarks, statements closely associating the unauthorized Thunderbolt prototype car with Aston Martin’s authorized dealer and the authorized Aston Martin vehicles sold by the dealer, and misstatements about the characteristics of the prototype, including regarding the ‘donor’ car used. Unless and until Fisker’s infringing activities and false and deceptive advertising are enjoined, Aston Martin will continue to suffer damage and irreparable harm.”
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- Aston Martin Vanquish Full Coverage: Reviews, Specs, Photos, and Pricing
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It’s a shame that something so pretty can cause a situation that’s so ugly. We’ll be watching to see how the legal wrangling unfolds. Meantime, it appears that the Thunderbolt will remain a design study and only a design study for some time to come.
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