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CLASS 46


Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh
Birgit Clark
Blog Administrator
Christian Tenkhoff
Fidel Porcuna
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Markku Tuominen
Niamh Hall
Nikos Prentoulis
Stefan Schröter
Tomasz Rychlicki
Yvonne Onomor
MONDAY, 4 AUGUST 2008
"Daimler" cars made in India

The Times and numerous German newssites, such as Financial Times Deutschland, report that Indian car maker Tata Motors, the new owner of Jaguar, is considering to revive the brand 'Daimler': a "luxury car marque", which was reportedly favoured by the late Queen Mum, and which in Germany is very much associated with German car maker Daimler AG.

It was widely reported when Indian car maker Tata Motors recently acquired Jaguar and Landrover. However, it may come as a surprise that through this purchase Tata Motors also acquired the rights to use the "Daimler" car brand. The history of the "Daimler" brand is indeed rather complicated: the UK based Daimler Motor Company was founded in 1896 after Fredrick Simms signed an agreement with German engineer Gottlieb Daimler to sell Daimler engines in the UK. Daimler Motor Company became a subsidiary of Small Arms Company in 1910, which was in turn acquired by Jaguar in 1960, which then was acquired by US car makers Ford in 1989. Ford did not use the Daimler brand much and Tata Motors is now looking "... whether we can resurrect the Daimler brand, which is sort of moribund...". The only Jaguar "Daimler" model currently available appears to be the 'Daimler Super Eight', which costs about 80,000 GBP.

Even more confusingly, Jaguar last year agreed terms which allow German car maker Daimler AG (previously Daimler Chrysler) to use the Daimler brand as the title of a trading company, a trade name and as a corporate name. Intriguingly, Daimler AG did not not own these rights previously and reportedly paid 2o million US Dollars for the rights. A spokesperson for Jaguar is quoted as saying that “... [the] extended
usage agreement does not affect either company's existing right to use the Daimler name for a product.” As such, the renegotiated terms between Daimler AG and Jaguar did not affect Jaguar's - and now Tata Motors' - rights to use the"Daimler" brand on cars. Analyst Garel Rhys, who is quoted by The Times , predicts success for Tata Motors plans due to Daimler's "fantastic heritage".
More about the UK "Daimler" brand history can be found here.

More about Daimler AG, formerly DaimlerChrysler AG, formerly Daimler-Benz AG, can be found here and here.

Class 46: At least one member of Class 46 agrees with the Financial Times Deutschland's choice of headline: "Markenverwirrung" (trade mark confusion) and is very confused by this.

Posted by: Birgit Clark @ 00.02
Tags: car marques, Daimler, Tata, trade mark confusion,
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MARQUES does not guarantee the accuracy of the information in this blog. The views are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of MARQUES. Seek professional advice before action on any information included here.


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