CHRYSLER AND M&M IN DISPUTE OVER SCORPIO’S DESIGN
Indian UV major Mahindra & Mahindra and Chrysler are said to be in dispute over the front end grille design and shape of the Scorpio. Chrysler has alleged M&M of copying the design from its automobile marquee JEEP. Speculations are also rife Chrysler could initiate legal action against M&M.
Chrysler allegations have come at a time when Mahindra is getting ready to launch its Scorpio pick up in USA and any legal action may delay its plans. The two companies were also in dispute in South Africa earlier this year in June when the South African arm of the Chrysler objected to an M&M advertisment saying it own the trademark to the world’s oldest sports utility vehicle Jeep, which is of world war II vinatge. M&M refuted the claim saying it used ‘jeep’ in lowercase to denote the generic name for the kind of multi-purpose vehicles it makes. The advertising authority of South Africa was reported to be looking into the matter later.
Sources in Mahindra said it had launched a heritage campaign in South Africa focused on the Willys Jeep, a famous utility vehicle which was used in the 1940s. Chrysler contacted M&M and was firm that M&M could not use the word, Jeep. Chrysler pointed out that till 1994, M&M could use the word, Jeep. But after 1994, it belonged only to Chrysler.
M&M and Chrysler are in discussion to sort out the issues but sources in M&M say that “this is nothing of significance and nothing legal. We had one casual conversation with some official in Chrysler. They said the Scorpio grill and the Jeep Wrangler grill look similar. So, can you do something about it?”
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Its not as simple as the Mahindra employee makes it sound.
M&M’s whole legacy is built on hand me downs from Willys and Jeep. History and law is on the side of Chrysler on this one and if the matter doesn’t get settled out of court (like they usually do), this will prove to be a dampener to M&M’s expansion plans.
This is the problem when plagiarism becomes an integral part of culture. For years the Mahindras have been fighting with Chrysler over the name jeep and the design of the grill. However, it should be said in Mahindra’s favour that the grill argument from Chrysler is a little weak. Its like saying that the hoffmeister kink is a BMW thing and anyone else using it will be taken to court. Lower case or otherwise jeep is Jeep. It is not a word in the English language. I do not think makers of photocopiers can call their products xerox with a small x and say that it is generic. In the end, this may all be due to the feud that the Mahindras and Chrysler have had for many years.
Eventhough this discussion was live for a long time, Now Chrysler intesified this argument, We have to see is there any particular interest to stop mahindra from entering US.