Lotus loses trademark dispute against Motus

Commercial vehicle dealer Motus Group will not have to change its name after winning a trademark dispute against Lotus.

The luxury sports carmaker had filed a complaint due to the similarity of company names and demanded Motus be changed to differentiate between the two brands.

The dispute was originally heard by the Intellectual Property Tribunal in August, 2023. Group Lotus lost and chose to appeal, adamant that the names were so similar that people would still confuse the goods and services provided by Motus with those provided by Lotus.

Legal experts from Motor Industry Legal Services (MILS), who were assisting Motus Group, were again successful in defending Motus' position and protecting both its trademarks and corporate identity this month (July 2024).

Motus won on all counts, so much so that MILS has restricted Group Lotus’ existing trademarks (some of which have been in place since 1957) from protections against all land vehicles to motor cars only.

A spokesperson for MILS said: “The matter was a significant success for our trademark application advice and litigation service, and testament to the great work conducted particularly by Paul Carroll (solicitor), our head of legal Christopher Baylis (barrister) and by Daniel Selmi (barrister).”