Lotus vs Lotus - Conclusion

To recap. Group Lotus (the car company, who sponsor the Renault F1 team) took Team Lotus (the 1Malaysia racing team, who run the Green and Yellow F1 cars) over the use of the "Team Lotus" name, which they claim the 1Malaysia team do not have the right to use.

In turn, Team Lotus took Group Lotus to court, as they prematurely cancelled an agreement with Team Lotus on the grounds of trademark infringement.

The judges decision - that 1Malaysia do have the right to continue operating under the Team Lotus name, and that Group Lotus were within their right to cancel their agreement for the reasons they did.

So to summarise, it appears to be a stalemate. Months of arguments, bitterness and disagreements, and nothing has really changed. It is understood however, that Group Lotus are contesting the decision.
To make things a bit easier, we will now be referring to the black and gold cars as Renault's, and the green and yellow cars as Team Lotus.

For more information on this story, visit www.autoblog.com

Group Lotus have now announced that they may have to make as many as 99 redundancies from their British base in Hethel, Norfolk. However, this is likely to have more affect on the road car operations.

For more on this story, visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk

Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes, however, has announced that he is in early stage talks over a possible purchase of his favourite football team, West Ham United.

For more updates from Mr Fernandes, follow @tonyfernandes on Twitter.

Could Team Lotus Be Rebranded?

Team Lotus have recently released details of an "incredibly exciting announcement" which will be revealed to the World during a straight-line aero test day in Duxford next week.

Rumours have started to spread that this announcement relates to the team buying the sports car maufacturer Caterham.

Caterham have strong links to the Lotus brand, originally distributing the cars, and later becoming the sole producer of the famous Seven road / track car.

Formula One journalist Joe Saward confirms in his blog that he has checked Companies House, and sure enough "Kamarudin Meranun and Anthony Francis Fernandes were appointed directors of Caterham Cars Group Ltd and Caterham Cars Ltd a little more than a week ago". (Visit http://joesaward.wordpress.com for full story).

This purchase could well be an opportunity for Team Lotus to 'get one over' on Group Lotus, by buying a company with close ties to Lotus Cars.

Alternatively, with a high profile legal battle currently taking place in the British courts regarding the naming rights of Team Lotus (separate story, click here), could this possibly be a potential new name for the team, now entering their second season in the sport?

When the announcement has been made by the team, you can be sure that we will let you know the outcome!

With thanks to toomuchracing.com for alerting us to this story.