Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the owner of the Jeep brand, which now comes under the newly formed company Stellantis, has moved the Federal Court of Australia against India's Mahindra & Mahindra. Following a teaser ad posted by Mahindra for the Thar in Australia, the American SUV maker has appealed to the court to prevent the launch of the vehicle. Jeep says that Mahindra cannot launch the Thar in Australia, and if it intends to, the company has to give Jeep a 90-day notice. The entire dispute has been raised over Fiat's claim that the new Mahindra Thar infringes the Jeep Wrangler's design.
When reached out to Mahindra for a comment on the matter, the company's official spokesperson said, "We have filed our reply in the proceeding commenced by FCA against us. There are no plans to launch the current model of the Thar in Australia. We would provide adequate notice to FCA, as is requested if we were to launch any future model of the Thar in Australia. The Court has listed the case to be heard on May 20, 2021."
The entire dispute has been raised over Fiat's claim that the new Mahindra Thar infringes the Jeep Wrangler's design.
Having said that, Mahindra has exported one unit of the Mahindra Thar to Australia for testing, and as per the company's official export data, it was the petrol version. However, the company has not started the homologation process yet, and the SUV is not on sale in Australia.
Now, this is not the first time that FCA has taken Mahindra to a foreign court over one of the latter's products. Back in 2018, FCA appealed to the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) asking for a ban on the sale of the Mahindra Roxor off-roader which was based on the previous-gen Thar. FCA claimed that the Roxor off-road SUV violates the "trade dress" of FCA's Jeep Wrangler SUV. However, since then Mahindra has made several changes to the design of its vehicle, and in December 2020, a U.S. regulator ruled that Mahindra's new design for the Roxor does not infringe the intellectual property rights of FCA's Jeep brand. Thus allowing Mahindra to sell the off-roader in the US.
