Fiat Chrysler Cars NV misplaced its renewed bid to dam Mahindra & Mahindra from promoting the redesigned Roxor off-road automobile within the U.S. after claiming the Indian automaker copied the design of its Jeep.
The Japanese District Courtroom of Michigan on July 19 dominated that Mahindra Automotive North America can hold producing, promoting and distributing the post-2020 model of Roxor, the Mumbai-based firm mentioned in an alternate submitting late Thursday.
The court docket denied Fiat’s request to use the “secure distance rule” on Roxor.
The authorized spat started after Fiat complained Roxor is a “practically an identical copy” of the Jeep, with some design components comparable to “boxy physique form with flat-appearing vertical sides and rear physique ending at about the identical peak because the hood.”
In June 2020, the Worldwide Commerce Fee mentioned that whereas the Roxor doesn’t violate Fiat’s emblems, it infringes the commerce costume — a product’s look that distinguishes its supply to shoppers — and really helpful prohibiting the import and sale of Roxor elements, in line with the submitting.
Mahindra contended that Roxor’s 2018 and 2019 fashions — topic to the authorized motion — had been now not in manufacturing and the 2020 model had a recent look with additional design adjustments deliberate.
In December that yr, the ITC mentioned that the post-2020 Roxor doesn’t infringe on the Jeep commerce costume, modifying its earlier order to exempt the redesigned Roxor from an import ban.
Fiat Chrysler Cars and PSA Group merged in 2021 to kind the automaking group Stellantis.