Australia’s Intellectual Property (IP) office has reportedly refused Mitsubishi’s trademark application for naming its planned off-road focused Ford Ranger Raptor-rivalling Triton the Absolute on copyright grounds.
Despite the leaking of several patent drawings in June last year, three months after the concept Triton Absolute had debuted at the Bangkok Motor Show in Thailand, carsguide.com.au reports that the failed submission comes as a result of the Absolute name belonging to Absolute Batteries based in the Queensland city of Toowoomba who filed for the moniker in question four years ago.
Accordingly, the application by the three diamonds was revoked after an agreement between it and the battery maker could not be reached, and after the IP office had determined that both were operating in the same field of business. Mitsubishi has since submitted a request for usage of the nomenclatures Predator and Tanami, all but confirming that a Raptor rival will appear in due course.
The breach in copyright is however not limited to Mitsubishi with similar refusals having effected Fiat and Toyota, the former forced to revive the Ritmo name for the Bravo in 2007 due to Mazda using the name for its B-series pick-up the time, and the latter required to rename the Highlander SUV the Kluger as Hyundai owned the rights to the name that served as a trim-level on the long since discontinued Terracan.
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