BMW beats Infiniti in battle over M
Today's tale of litigation between automakers is brought to you by the letter M, which both BMW and Infiniti are claiming rights to use in a Canadian court. Unfortunately for Infiniti, BMW has been using the letter M to designate its many performance variants since 1978 in Germany and 1987 in Canada. Infiniti, however, only registered the names M45 in 2004 and M35 in 2005. As such, Infiniti has lost the battle over M, at least in Canada.
The silly thing is that Infiniti could have avoided being sued by BMW if it had steered clear of using the letter M alone in advertisements. It also produced a model of the G35 coupe it called the M6, which obviously steps on the toes of BMW's own high-end M6 coupe. Had Infiniti gone on just using the M45 and M35 monikers alone, it would likely not be liable for damages in a Canadian court right now. The amount of damages that Infiniti must pay BMW has yet to be determined, but in the meantime it has to "deliver to the plaintiffs [BMW] or to destroy under oath, all literature, invoices, packaging, signs, advertisements, promotional or marketing material, printed or otherwise recorded, in the possession, custody or control of the defendant."
Thanks for the tip, Tom!
[Source: CBC.ca]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Brian 10:20AM (3/21/2009)
It's Canada, eh?
Who gives a flip?
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Infiniti M 5:07PM (3/20/2009)
Ummm you guys are retarded...I love BMW's and Infiniti's but its just really funny to hear people speak of BMW and german cars being better, when in reality they really are not. German cars are more unreliable and have the worst technology compared to Japanese cars. Most of you fools that buy a German car buy it for the name, they dont realize they could get a car just as good for less. By the way I drive a BMW and my wife has the Infiniti, all I know is that the BMW gives me more problems than the Infiniti does.
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testa di cazzo 3:13PM (3/20/2007)
good. those dirty bastards tried pulling that same crap with Audi and the Q7. screw infiniti. stop trying to compete with the germans.
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Matt 3:15PM (3/20/2007)
I don't see why BMW is losing sleep over this. The M45/35 has nothing against an M6. Stop whining BMW, its not like the M6 is a high production model and carries the bulk of the revenue for the company. They have nothing to worry about. So whats the M45/35 going to be called now?
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JT 3:19PM (3/20/2007)
What goes around comes around. Infiniti made Audi pay big bucks for the "Q" on its Q7. So its payback time.
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akintz 3:18PM (3/20/2007)
Hey Matt... did you read the second paragraph at all?
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The Penguin 6:51PM (3/20/2007)
Infinity knows that they can't make cars as good as BMW's so they try to trick us by calling them the same thing, maybe they should just try to make better cars.
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starlightmica 3:22PM (3/20/2007)
Anyone remember the 1990 Infiniti M30? No lawsuit then. What?
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thisislame 3:23PM (3/20/2007)
Matt, Incase you missed this:
"...It also produced a model of the G35 coupe it called the M6, which obviously steps on the toes of BMW's own high-end M6 coupe..."
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SHOTT3R 3:28PM (3/20/2007)
I think the problem wasn't so much the specific names M35/M45, so much as the ads for Infiniti would say "The new M".
At least that's what I got from the blurb.
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Tal 3:45PM (3/20/2007)
Perhaps Nissan should consider questioning BMWs use of the letter Z. Datsun/Nissan has been using the Z desination since 1970 240Z. There was a brief period when no Z was produced by Nissan but the 350Z has been around for several years now. That's a lot longer use of a Z designation than BMWs M.
BMW thought nothing of using Z3, Z4 badges for their little roadsters..believe Chevy used Z71 or something like that for a pickup truck.
F... BMW. You've lost a potential customer over a rather petty argument.
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testa di cazzo 3:54PM (3/20/2007)
Tal:
first of all, the Z3 was made long LONG before the 350Z. Nissan had stopped making the 240Z long before BMW started making the Z3.
and the issue here is not the letter M (or Z) in itself. it's the fact that Nissan is trying to use BMW's trademark M to benefit itself. It says "the new M" as though the only M is infiniti's, whereas everyone knows that BMW was the first to employ the M moniker. infiniti also wants to name it's performance G-coupe the M6, which is a blatant infringement on BMW.
and anyways, Infiniti did the EXACT same thing to Audi for using the "Q" in the Q7, becuase of infiniti's prior use of the Q45, even though Audi never said "the new Q" or called another car the Q45. and they still made Audi pay up.
so screw infiniti, what goes around comes around. if you won't buy a bmw because of this (a situation where BMW is defending its RIGHT to a tradename), then you're probably not the kind of customer BMW (or Audi for that matter) wants...
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machrc 4:15PM (3/20/2007)
Its not beacue the model number is m45, its because infiniti have been sending homes and printing out brochures that call the car simnply "M" like for example: "test drive the new M at your infiniti dealer" Its like toyota printing ads that say, "please test our new AMG car".
so dont get g35 g55 q45 q7 m20 all mixed up in a bunch.
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DPC car videos 4:01PM (3/20/2007)
If Infiniti was proud and confident of their product they would come up with their own model name. This shows that they copy the German car makers and know consumers like German cars.
http://www.dpccars.com
DPCcars
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G. Snyder 4:37PM (3/20/2007)
9 - not too mention the Z1. Though limited in production, it set BMWs precedent for using the Z moniker for their roadsters.
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Chet 7:18PM (3/20/2007)
I suggest using the letter N.
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mk 4:20PM (3/20/2007)
If cars had actual names, this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Alpha-numerics have been a european, especially German, mainstay for decades...
Aside from that, why do car companies loathe to use actual names? Lincoln, Cadillac, infiniti, Lexus, Mazda, Pontiac, etc... are all trying to get in on the alpha-numerics... there are only so many letters, and some are more pleasing to use than others.
actual names FTW.
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Lee Gibson 4:20PM (3/20/2007)
"first of all, the Z3 was made long LONG before the 350Z."
Er, yeah, but the 240Z was built in, what? 1972?
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Michael Karesh 4:49PM (3/20/2007)
I must agree, this sounds like payback for the Q lawsuit as much as anything. With the whole stupid rush to alphanumerics these suits are bound to happen, there are only 26 letters to go around.
My blog's anti-alphanumeric piece:
http://www.truedelta.com/blog/?p=60
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Spectacular Bid 5:45PM (3/20/2007)
BMW has owned the M badge longer before Infiniti was a made up division of Nissan. Why wouldn't Infiniti avoid the whole problem and use W or R, etc. BMW has invested tons into car buying awareness into the "M" badge being something above and beyond. To swoop in and steal that is deserving of a legal smack down.
Not to mention they snagged "Q" long after it was well known as a sporty but stealth designation. Once again the lack of originality by the Far East.
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