“Continuation” Cars

[GeorgeG]

I have been doing a bit of digging around the IPR issue. Sorry for the long post, but it casts some light on what is going on here.

The original BRISTOL registered trade marks are currently owned by Kamkorp AutoKraft Limited which in turn appears to be owned by Kamkorp Limited, according to KAL's most recent filed accounts. They are the Bristol badge, BRISTOL FIGHTER, BRISTOL, BRISTOL CARS, the stylised BRISTOL signature, BRISTOL BULLET and the Pegasus badge. Presumably they are part of the IPR package which the liquidators are putting/have put together for sale.

KAL is not in liquidation but its majority shareholder, Kamkorp Limited, is in liquidation. The Siddiqis are still directors of KAL according to Companies House records. To make it even more complicated, the liquidators of Kamkorp Limited may not be the same people as are liquidators of the rest of the Bristol Cars group. Phew! Still with me??

All these KAL trade mark registrations are currently the subject of cancellation proceedings (ie applications to remove the trade marks from the Register) at the UK Trade Marks Registry. These cancellation proceedings were started by Bristol Fighter Limited, one of the companies mentioned in the Car and Classic advertisements

BFL has itself registered BRISTOL FIGHTER, BRISTOL BUCCANEER, BRISTOL CARS, BRISTOL SPEEDSTER (application only at present) and BRISTOL ELECTRIC (application only at present). The current registrations were applied for in February 2020 (around the time of the liquidation of Bristol Cars Limited) so BFL must have been planning its strategy for quite a while. I am not sure how the Registry allowed some of these registrations to get on the Register when the existing equivalent KAL registrations were already there.

Jason Wharton is, I believe, a chartered surveyor, who got involved in 2011 in setting up an Allard continuation car company but I am not aware of this project having gone anywhere since.

It looks to me that "someone" is seriously after the right to use the BRISTOL related trade marks in the future and maybe to exclude others from using the mark BRISTOL in relation to new vehicles and new vehicle parts.

[Xseries]

Further to the last post....

Jason Wharton set up Wharton Motor Company in 2012; in danger of being struck off by Companies House in November 2014.
It was dormant for most of its life.
It changed its name to Albatross England in May 2019. On 8 September 2020 that company became BRISTOL MANUFACTURING LIMITED.

Bristol Manufacturing Limited (08164632 - Group), Bristol Fighter Limited (12449369), Bristol Buccaneer Limited (11986176) Bristol Electric Vehicles Limited (13021060) Bristol Cars™, Bristol Fighter™, Bristol Buccaneer™ are registered trademarks owned by our Group, together with other associated intangible and tangible assets. Gallafents, London act for our Group in relation to IP.

Personally, I cannot see any history in all this beyond a long term dream as there are no assets and appear to be just one person as Director and Company Secretary.

[Maggan]

I am not sure to what extent you can trademark “Bristol Fighter” as it is first and foremost the name of the aeroplane produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company from which the car took its name. I am assuming the trademark is limited to use in motor vehicle production.

Even the badge is limited in its trademark, as the design - the castle on the cliff with the ship - is not an exclusive design made for the Bristol Aeroplane Company or Bristol Cars but a variant of the coat of arms of the City and County of Bristol, the coat of arms has been in existence since the 14th Century. It is used by various organisations/businesses, for example Bristol City Council use it and Bristol City and Bristol Rovers football clubs have used it as have Bristol Rugby club. Using it with the name Bristol in relation to motor vehicle production could be restricted.

[Philip]

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/n...w-buccaneer-gt

[Xseries]

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1292456
The car and classic advert states:

We are delighted to offer for sale a limited edition series of eight new Bristol 411 Series 8 Cars, after several years of very careful design development, business planning, and sourcing of the full parts catalogue.

The Bristol 411 Series 8R is a fully re-mastered version of the original Bristol 411 Series 6, built to UK IVA Homologation, and comes with the latest Chrysler 6.4L V8 Powertrain, and an 8-Speed Automatic Transmission. Available to order and specify now, with the placing of a deposit, and build order mandate.

The Bristol 411 Series 8E is a fully re-mastered version of the original Bristol 411 Series 6, built to UK IVA Homologation, and comes with a patented British Electric Vehicle (EV) Powertrain, with bespoke power, torque and range outputs available. This model is still in prototype development, but orders are being taken, to enable final completion of homologation, and testing.

There are no 411 bodies to make 8 cars, the bucks for them are not available for use as they now reside in a museum.

I note that the Autocar article uses a 603 image posing as a 411 - well it does have 4 round headlights!

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Xseries

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1292456
There are no 411 bodies to make 8 cars, the bucks for them are not available for use as they now reside in a museum.

That isn't necessarily a huge impediment nowadays. I believe the latest 3D scanning and CAD technology can be used to make a new body buck quite quickly (in a few weeks).

[Kevin H]

There are however challenges sourcing many other parts. For example, last time I spoke to BCL about bumpers they could only offer secondhand ones. Similarly there will be many other parts which are not available new in any quantity and it wouldn't be economically viable to have them all manufactured from scratch. Which suggests they may be planning to purchase donor vehicles.

I note that 'new' Jensen Interceptors are being produced using a similar approach.