Jaguar Land Rover loses London court battle over Defender trademark

A London court on Monday dismissed an appeal by JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors. The UK Intellectual Property Office had found the shapes it sought to get protected weren’t distinctive enough.

The judge upheld the findings by the IP Office that while differences in design may appear significant to some specialists, they “may be unimportant, or may not even register, with average consumers."

The Land Rover Defender has been vehicle which is part of Land Rover’s past, present and future," “Its unique shape is instantly recognisable and signifies the Land Rover brand around the world."JLR commented on court's ruling.

About Ineos Grenadier

Grenadier is named after Jim Ratcliffe’s favourite pub in Belgravia, London. Two new factories are being built, one in Portugal for chassis-making and one in South Wales for final assembly.

The Grenadier continues with a boxy design inspired from Defender and  is similar in size to the latest Mercedes-Benz G-class and is powered by a  range of six-cylinder BMW diesel and petrol engines. .

Jim Ratcliffe who is founder  of British petrochemicals group Ineos, is a steadfast devotee of the old Defender. He came up with the idea of building a replacement of his own when Jaguar Land Rover declined to sell him its designs or tooling to continue when production of last generation Defender stopped.