Force India will have to settle its debts with Aerolab
Force India certainly achieved recognition of the violation of its intellectual property by Aerolab and Team Lotus but will still have to pay £820,000 to the Italian wind tunnel.
The communications team at Silverstone nevertheless managed the feat of turning bad news into excellent news. Indeed, the team hurried to publish the following press release on its website: Following the publication of photos showing the Team Lotus wind tunnel model in October 2009, Force India Formula One Team filed a complaint with the Italian criminal court and initiated civil proceedings before the High Court of the United Kingdom, citing Team Lotus, Aerolab, and Mike Gascoyne for illegally copying the intellectual property of Force India Formula One Team from secure files held at Aerolab.
The case was heard by the High Court in London in January 2012. Mr. Justice Arnold established that Team Lotus (now known as Caterham) and Aerolab were respectively guilty of intellectual property infringement and the use of confidential information. Some parts created from Force India’s confidential information were used on Team Lotus racing cars during the first part of the 2010 season.
The judgment of the High Court of the United Kingdom concerning illegal copying will now be submitted to the body that manages Formula 1, the FIA, while the Italian criminal case against Mike Gascoyne, Tony Fernandes, and Jean-Claude Migeot continues.
Upon reading such a statement, one might think that Force India won its case and can only be delighted with such an outcome since Aerolab and Force India have been ordered to pay it 25,000 euros in damages. However, the situation is more complex because Vijay Mallya’s team must also settle its debts to Aerolab, which amount to over 840,000 euros! Furthermore, they refused an out-of-court settlement, making them responsible for all legal costs. Since the proceedings have been ongoing for almost two years, these costs could therefore amount to millions of dollars…
The whole affair originated from the dismissal of Mike Gascoyne by Force India. The British engineer then bounced back within the new Team Lotus structure. He continued his collaboration with the Italian company, all the more easily because the latter had not received the payments owed by Force India. Its leader Jean-Claude Migeot explains in the columns of Autosport: When a client ends their contract, they give us notice. This way, when we reach the last day, everything is cleared, all computers are cleaned out. The problem is, I was forced to throw out Force India for non-payment. We almost immediately started working for Lotus the next day. We didn’t have time to clean the computers, and in the meantime, some people retained their studies. It’s a very fine line between using your knowledge and using someone else’s intellectual property, something we don’t do. We have employees and consultants, and people come to us because we have the know-how and experience.
The legal battle is therefore far from being definitively resolved, and Mike Gascoyne and Aerolab may have to wait a long time for the payment of the fees they are owed.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
