Lotus

Wow, we got a chance to see a very nice and rare fighting between two tycoons.

Tony Fernandes vs. Nadzmi Salleh.

Air Asia vs. Proton.

A court battle is looming over the ‘Team Lotus’ name which is linked to the country’s first locally-backed Formula One team. Both of them fight to get the right of Lotus name.

Okay, first I wonder, what is so "Lotus" or "Proton" about the "Team Lotus"? For damn sake, the engine comes from Cosworth, not from any of above.

And I also wonder, Proton is owned (and subsidized) by Malaysians and 1Malaysia Racing team is the brain child of the Malaysian govt. So why can't Proton help out the hand that feeds it? 

It seems like, u Mr Fernendaz, u fight for a govt that does not fight for u.

And yes, before I forget, my friend did ask me why they fight at English court?

Actually for those who wonder this, just a teeny bit of research would have told that only the British court would have jurisdiction over this case. The patent right of Team Lotus is in the United Kingdom, not here in Malaysia. And the venture is in Norfolk, also in the United Kingdom, not here in Malaysia. Both parties are British registered entities. That’s why they have to fight in over there.

The situation now is quite twisting. At first, I was under the impression that Tony lotus team was part of an engineering effort of Group Lotus. Apparently it is not, therefore it is misleading to the public.

So basically, if it causes confusion in the public, I think the trade mark owner has every right to protect it, but I’m not sure whether the court will agree with it because legal system itself is very confusing in certain part.

For this case, even it brings the misleading to public, it is not wrong legally. This is how a legal system works in the world. If u ask who owns the right to the name of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, u shouldn't be surprised that it is owned by the Caucasians who live in UK, not Chinese. It is also the largest or second largest bank in Europe. Yes, it is a European bank whose main revenues all come from Asians. So, what can the Chinese do? Nothing! Nobody gives a damn to what u think or ur confusion!

Now let us bring the question back to Nadzmi, why he so mad if Tony want to use Lotus brand coz directly or indirectly, it can helps give free publicity to the Lotus brand.

So why he want to stop Tony from using Lotus name? Let me tell u why.  

Whether it’s team Lotus or 1 Malaysia racing team, it’s doesn’t bother as long as u are winner. In this case, the question is, all the racing event we are not even close or get some points. We are always at the bottom or should say top 20 position (sound better). So this bring bad image to Lotus brand!

So that’s why Nadzmi want them to stop using Lotus brand, coz he wants to protect the image of Lotus brand (even they actually use Cosworth engine!). Nadzmi act like he own all that connect to Lotus. Well, maybe somebody should go and read history.

Colin Chapman kept Group Lotus and Team Lotus separate, so neither one owns another.

Proton never bought the rights to Team Lotus when they purchased Group Lotus, they tried to stake their claim but since the companies were different it was ruled that they had to purchase it from the lawful rights owner at that point, David Hunt. Of course David didn’t sell.

My other wild assumption is, Proton and Group Lotus are just pissed off that Tony and his friends have taken a dead British motoring brand and kicked some life into it, and now that the world has taken notice and suddenly Lotus is becoming cool again, they want to stake their claim. When in fact they had something like 12 years to do this but they were happy to just sit tight and stick ‘Engineered by Lotus’ stickers on their stupid inferior Protons.

So now Proton and GL want to kick up a fuss and lay their stake to the Team Lotus (the racing team) brand. They lost before (go look it up, they tried to take it via the courts in the late 90s), and they will lose again.

And Tony, I wonder, why can't the team be called 'Air Asia Racing Team' ? Coz all this while u guys had been using Cosworth's engine and maybe Renault for the 2011 campaign (see below). Remember that in F1, the engine that drive the winner not the 'Team'.

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Lotus and Cosworth to end engine agreement 

The Lotus team and engine suppliers Cosworth are set to end their partnership at the end of this season it has been confirmed. Like fellow newcomers Virgin and HRT, Lotus had entered a three-year agreement with Cosworth prior to joining the Formula One grid at the start of this year.

However, with Cosworth agreeing to break that contract, it paves the way for Lotus to use an alternative engine supplier - widely tipped to be Renault - from 2011 onwards (www.formula1.com/news..)

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Before I end my writing, let me draw a simple conclusion ;

1)      Nadzmi spent maybe 20 years in Proton, with very little to show for it.

2)      Tony made AirAsia into global brand. 

3)      Lotus is bleeding proton dry. All the money spent by mak ciks and pak ciks, supporting Proton, goes into the hands of overpaid and under work British people.

So the solution here is, better sell lotus to Tony, and see what he can run it into.

But whatever it is, everyone knows that Formula 1 is an expensive business (most expensive sport in the world!), but if Tony can make it work financially, then it’s good for him. Tony can do whatever he wants with the whole Lotus thing. As long as it's his own money and he's not pestering the government, GLCs and others for money, we don't really care. 

In our case now, we can’t even win a race and yet we go battle for the name. What a joke. Wasting energy and resources and $$$. ~