We wrote on Monday about the plans for 2023 from the ByKolles team, with their new ‘Vandervell LMH‘, revealed by DSC last December initially announced as being entered under the ‘Vanwall’ brand, this the name of the British Formula One team founded by Tony Vandervell and winners of the first Formula One Manufacturers Championship in 1958.
We wrote too that there were still remaining issues for the team in fulfilling the requirements of the FIA WEC HyperCar regulations with regard to their nominated ‘Car Brand’.
First though a couple of clarifications around ‘internet knowledge’ on the subject of those regulations and what they do, and don’t say!
Article 3.2.3 of the Championship’s sporting regulations state:
“A Competitor wishing to enter in the Le Mans Hypercar category in the FIA World Endurance Championship must enter the homologated car under the name of a car brand. For this purpose, the Competitor must address to the WEC Committee:
“An application letter co-signed by the Competitor’s representative (see Article 1.3.2) and the car brand’s representative (and, if different, the car manufacturer’s representative). They must be fully and legally entitled to do so by their parent companies – this being placed under the Competitor’s responsibility;
“A presentation dossier including information on the brand and its commitment to the Championship. The Endurance Commission will review applications forwarded by the WEC Committee and may require any further information from the applicant.
“The Endurance Commission will rule in the last resort, at its entire discretion, on the admissibility of a car brand and car name to the Championship.”
Very specifically, the regulations do NOT insist that the team, or its representatives, build road going versions of their race car, though the ‘Vanwall’ programme intends to do so and are in the final stages of building up a prototype round their first test chassis.
Vanwall
The remaining question then is around the status of the ‘Vanwall’ name for the project.
Vanwall is certainly a car brand, but the issue is, and currently continues to be, whether ByKolles, and their associated company PMC GMBh ,now trading as Vanwall GMBh, have a legitimate right to use the brand.
Put another way, the legitimate owners of the brand MUST make commercial usage of it to continue to hold rights to it.
DSC has spoken, at length, to both sides of the issue, Colin Kolles very firm on his position .
He maintains that they (PMC) have registered the Trademark in the EU, and in Germany, and that his challenge to the EU registration by the pre-existing UK company Vanwall 1958 has been successful on the grounds of a lack of commercial usage.
“We are confident that the EUIPO process will decide in our favour and have provided the FIA with all that they require to fulfil the regulations and to show that we have the right to use the Vanwall name for our cars.”
The company has also registered the trademark with global trademark body WIPO, though the complexities of global intellectual property regulations means that each marketplace has effective sovereignty on decision making.
Putting all of that aside though it seems clear that the defining issue will be the decision of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and, suffice it to say, that process is ongoing and somewhat long-winded.
To summarise:
As we have made clear previously, the Vanwall name was registered in the UK and across the EU by Vanwall 1958 Ltd, a UK-based company that planned to market reproduction cars and associated merchandise.
Those plans were delayed by the pandemic and Vanwall 1958 found their EU trademark challenged by PMC GMBh, a German company involved with the Kolles / ‘Vanwall’ programme on the grounds of having no commercial activity since the Trademark was granted.
That position has been rigorously defended by the UK company who have told DSC that they have fielded evidence not only of merchandise sales, and marketing efforts behind the proposed building of full replicas of the original 1958 Vanwall Grand Prix cars, but also the sale of an earlier replica Vanwall.
It would be fair to reflect that the above account is disputed by PMC.
“Whilst it would be completely correct to say that the momentum behind our plans to market the full reproduction cars suffered badly through COVID, it would be fundamentally incorrect to say that there has been no commercial activity against the Trademark, ” Vanwall 1958’s Iain Sanderson told DSC last week. “We have provided substantial evidence to the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) in support of our position and we await their decision.”
The latest stage of the process, the opportunity for Vanwall 1958 to respond to the challenges by PMC GMBh over their defence to the original challenge, passed on 11 August.
Colin Kolles meanwhile told DSC that the EUIPO process was complete and that his company had proved there had been no commercial activity against the trademark from Vanwall 1958. He did concede though that the process would take some time to finally complete its course.
In summary, then the two parties are still some distance apart, and if and when the EUIPO issue a decision there is still the question of a right to appeal, whichever side wins or loses.
In parallel, meanwhile, PMC GMBh has also registered other trademarks, this time as ‘Vandervell’ – the family name behind the Vanwall marque.
In answer to DSC’s enquiry about what the car will be called, Kolles responded that it will be named ‘Vandervell LMH’ – and a further question on whether that would correctly be called a Vanwall Vandervell LMH – gained the response that this had not yet been decided.
The decision making process is shifting from the desks of intellectual property lawyers to those of the FIA Endurance Commission. A potential two-car FIA WEC HyperCar entry depends on those decisions.
Vandervell LMH pics above copyright and courtesy Dylan Don
