Fiat Chrysler escalates fight with M&M in US over ‘Roxor’
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) has escalated its effort to bar Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd from selling its off-road utility vehicle, Roxor, in the US, claiming that the Indian auto maker is seeking refuge in a legal interpretation of a contract signed between the two companies in 2009.
FCA, in its petition, asked a court in Michigan to reject an injunction sought by Mahindra in the case where the former has alleged that the Mumbai-based company infringed on the intellectual property rights of the Jeep design. A copy of the petition was reviewed by Mint.
Selling the Roxor is key for Mahindra as it would mark the culmination of its 14-year-old endeavour to crack the lucrative US market. The latest dispute with FCA threatens to put a spanner in the works for Mahindra as the Italian-American auto maker is disputing the design of the Roxor’s grille, which Mahindra said had been designed and developed in the US, with the grille itself sourced from third-party manufacturers in Michigan.
Mahindra has argued that the grille used in the Roxor is made in the US, and not imported by the company as knocked-down kits, as stated by Fiat, and that Fiat’s complaint before the International Trade Commission (ITC) is a breach of contract between the two companies signed in 2009 of not asserting “infringement claims against a Mahindra vehicle using the Approved Grille Design”.
“But that is not what the language (of the agreement) says,” FCA said in its petition.
“Instead, the 2009 agreement says that Chrysler will not bring ‘any claim for infringement... based on: (1) a grille having the Approved Grille Design; or (2) a vehicle containing or using the Approved Grille Design’,” Fiat said. It said the company never agreed to forego any and all claims “against” a vehicle using the Approved Grille Design that are based on other components of that vehicle that infringe FCA’s intellectual property. “Neither Mahindra nor this Court may re-write clear terms of the 2009 Agreement—changing ‘based on’ to ‘against’—under the guise of interpretation,” FCA added.
FCA claims that M&M broke the pact, which let the latter use “the Approved Grille Design”, whereas the Roxor grille is not the approved design. A Mahindra spokeswoman said FCA’s claims were without merit. “They are incorrect on the facts and on the law. The dispute continues to be addressed,” she said by email.
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: