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ReprintsClassic names are part of Tata deal
Tony Lewin
Automotive News
March 27, 2008 - 6:46 am ET
Tata Motors will get the right use three classic British auto-brand names as part of its $2.3 billion deal to buy Jaguar and Land Rover. Included in the deal are the Rover name and the Jaguar-owned names of Daimler and Lanchester. Ford bought the rights to the Rover brand name from BMW in September 2006 for an undisclosed sum to ensure no other automaker could use it and cause confusion with the Land Rover brand. "We acquired the Rover trademark in the interests of protecting Land Rover," said Ford of Europe spokesman John Gardiner. "So it's also in the interests of the new owner of Land Rover to have it." BMW obtained ownership of the Rover name when it bought the Rover group in 1994. In 2006, BMW refused a request from China's SAIC to use the Rover brand name under license. SAIC had bought some assets of the ailing MG Rover group and now builds cars called Roewes in China. Jaguar acquired the rights to sell cars badged as Daimlers in 1960 from the UK Daimler car company that was founded in 1896 and licensed by Gottlieb Daimler to use his internal combustion engine. The UK Daimler car company also owned the Lanchester brand name. |
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