Isn’t it ironic that the same man responsible for Aston Martin’s current design language gets sued by Aston Martin for using one of its models as basis for a coachbuilt model?
Henrik Fisker, the man who designed the Aston Martin DB9 and the V8 Vantage, has been sued by its former employer over the Vanquish-based Thunderbolt prototype, recently unveiled at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in Florida.
Aston Martin says the coachbuilt car is an unauthorized copy of the Vanquish, arguing that it features minor variations of the automaker’s trademarked design features, including the wings logo and side vents. The UK-based company filed a complaint on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court on trademark issues. The Thunderbolt is available via special order through Los Angeles-based dealer Galpin Aston Martin, also part of the lawsuit.
“Fisker’s bad-faith intent to free-ride off the tremendous goodwill associated with the famous Aston Martin mark, wings logo, side vent mark, and Vanquish mark could not be more transparent,” Aston Martin said in a statement cited by Bloomberg. The company added that Fisker’s alleged plan to sell a production version that doesn’t include some of those features is a classic “bait-and-switch” scheme.
While Fisker claims the concept car is based on the Vanquish, Aston Martin says Fisker used an earlier-generation DBS model as “donor” for the Thunderbolt and only claims it was based on the Vanquish to link it to Aston Martin’s newer, range-topping model.
Neither Henrik Fisker nor representatives of Galpin Aston Martin have commented on the lawsuit so far.
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