Stellantis, the owner of the Jeep brand had approached the Federal Court of Australia against India's Mahindra & Mahindra following a teaser ad posted by the company for the Thar SUV. The American carmaker appealed to the court to prevent the launch of the vehicle in Australia claiming that the Mahindra Thar infringes Jeep Wrangler's design. During the legal proceeding, the Indian carmaker has made clear to the court that it had no such plans to launch the current model of the Mahindra Thar SUV in Australia.
Also Read: Jeep Takes Mahindra To Court In Australia Over The New Thar
On May 20 2021, the Federal Court of Australia took note of the undertaking given by Mahindra and dismissed the applications filed by FCA. Mahindra & Mahindra also agreed to provide a 90-day prior notice to FCA before lodging any application for homologation or launch of any variant or future model of the new Thar in Australia.
Mahindra launched the brand 'Thar' in the year 2010
Mahindra's official spokesperson said, "We're seeing very strong demand for the all-new Thar 2020 in India, therefore have no immediate plans for the launch of the current variant of the Thar in markets outside India. As a result, it was pointless to engage in litigation at this stage. When we decide to launch any new variant of the Thar in Australia, we will provide 90 days' notice to FCA and take all steps to protect our rights to market and sell the product. This has no bearing on our future plans in Australia as we continue to pursue expansion of our business across a number of vehicle categories."
Mahindra launched the brand 'Thar' in the year 2010 which represents the seven decades of heritage that the carmaker has in creating iconic 4x4 vehicles. The journey began with the CJ3A in 1949, when the vehicles were made under license from Willys Overland Corporation. Since then, Mahindra has invested heavily in R&D to evolve and customize the vehicle according to the requirements of customers in different markets across the globe. The vehicle has undergone several iterations including CJ3B, MM540, MM550, CJ340, CJ4 amongst others to its current variant.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had claimed that the new Mahindra Thar infringes the Jeep Wrangler's design.
Now, this is not the first time that FCA has taken Mahindra to a foreign court over one of the latter's products. It was in 2018 that FCA filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) claiming that the Mahindra Roxor violates the 'trade dress' of FCA's Jeep Wrangler SUV. The company appealed to the court to ban the sale of the Mahindra Roxor off-roader which was based on the previous-gen Thar. However, since then Mahindra has made several changes to the design of its vehicle. 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.
