Another trial awaits Team Lotus in January 2012

At this rate, it will become a specialty: still entangled in the lawsuit with Lotus Cars over the use of the name Lotus, the team still called Team Lotus will also have to appear again before British courts in January 2012, but against Force India this time. The latter accuses it of violating its intellectual property through the Italian wind tunnel Aerolab.

The Indian team filed a complaint last June, but the London High Court has only just set the trial date for January 16, 2012. This means that the British justice system will have to rule on a case of intellectual property violation nearly two seasons after the events. In a sport where improvements occur almost every Grand Prix, this is quite a long delay…

The case revolves around the fact that Force India terminated its contract with the Italian wind tunnel Aerolab SRL in August 2009, following suspicions of data leaks from its wind tunnel tests to the organization whose technical director is Mike Gascoyne. He had also been poached from Force India by Tony Fernandes’ team. Force India has already been ordered to pay one million euros for wrongful termination of contract but intends to assert its rights over the data that may have been used in the development of last year’s T127.

The two parties therefore have time to prepare their arguments before the trial takes place. This will certainly occupy the headlines of the next off-season while this year’s is not even over yet…

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr