As nobody has yet posted this! From the BBC story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17471815 What do you guys reckon? I think its a bit unfair on FI as basically Caterham/Team Lotus/1Malaysia have stolen their designs via Aerolab who left no confidentiality to FI. If I was them then I wouldnt of paid thoses fee's either. Overall this is bad news for FI who are starting to creek with money issues anyway...
I thought this only happened because FI didn't pay. The Aerolab guys stopped doing business with them and then just kept a few ideas for them self. It all seems iffy anyway.
Actually I think you are right. I think at the Time FI were a bit hard up and couldnt pay off a lot of things
Unfortunately everything I've read about it has been very one sided, either one way or the other, making it difficult to see the full picture. FI should probably get some of that 700k back as some of the data is bound to be their intellectual property.
That's not much. If aerolab have compromised their intellectual property, then they should surely have attempted to make a bigger claim? I would have guessed 6 figures would be considered appropriate.
*1] It seems Force India got into a mess because they did not pay their bills. *2] If Aerolab owned the intellectual property it to sold to Caterham (which I believe is a strong possibility), but had previously agreed to share with Force India for contractual payment, it would seem likely that failing to pay these bills on time may constitute a breach of contract, such that the designs Caterham got would not be Force India's, even if the latter already has them on its car. *3] If *2 is true, Force India may find it difficult to demonstrate to the FIA that it was their intellectual property - in which event, there may be no case for Caterham to answer. Force India may find themselves in an even bigger mess if they present a case to the FIA which is not watertight. For this reason, Marussia should be wary of supporting any such a claim if they are not wholly aware of the facts. Caveat: I do not know whether my conjecture at *2 is in fact the case. However, it seems likely (to me) that Caterham would seek to defend themselves along these lines. Presumably Force India will be arguing that they had substantial input into the designs in Aerolab's possession (which subsequently went to Caterham); however, I repeat: it is possible that a breach of contract may have jeopardised such a claim - which might otherwise have appeared valid.
It's an interesting case. It isn't the intellectual property that's Caterhams problem, it's (knowingly?) using the data from FI, McLaren didn't breach Ferrari's intellectual property rights, they just had access to their data, a fairly similar case with one major difference; if McLaren had got Ferrari's data through a third party company would they have been let off? me thinks not.
