An inventor who claims to be the son of the late motor tycoon John DeLorean has lost a legal fight to sell his own version of the DeLorean cars that featured in the Back to the Future films. But Ty DeLorean says the case was actually a victory and claims he is on the verge of a Hollywood deal.
Ty, who was born Benjamin Granger but changed his name by deed poll, makes his DMC21 cars, complete with the famous gullwing doors, from the front of a three-wheeled Reliant Robin and the back of a pick-up truck. They are advertised as coming with a “free hoverboard with every purchase” in reference to the Michael J Fox movie trilogy.
However, a judge at the High Court in London has now ruled that he must stop using DeLorean branding on the vehicles. The case was brought by the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) in Texas, which bought the rights to the design when John DeLorean went bust in the early Eighties.
The cars - which proved a hit at the British Motor Show last year - have a brushed aluminium finish, remote control doors, waterproof speakers and a full DeLorean-style interior, and are powered by a three-cylinder 850cc engine. It was while Ty was at the show that he was served court papers alleging trademark infringement by DMC.
Ty, who lives near Newquay, Cornwall, says he is the son of John DeLorean, who set up a manufacturing plant near Belfast in 1980 and produced the DMC 12 car. He claims DeLorean had an affair with his mother in the Northern Ireland city and he was the result. Two years later, John DeLorean went bust.
Ty told the court that the cars’ displayed price of £20,000 or $25,000 was intended to be “humorous” and argued that the name DeLorean had become a “generic” term associated with time travel. He claimed that the cars were a “parody or pastiche” and that he should be allowed to continue selling them as a form of satire.
But Judge Richard Hacon, finding in favour of the American company, said that “parody isn’t a defence” for a trademark infringement. He added: “The defendant's use of the word DeLorean is identical to the claimant's marks” and the logo is “plainly similar, such as to cause confusion”.
Read more: Inventor makes Back to the Future car from Reliant Robin
Ty, who said that he had signed a contract with streaming giant Netflix for a project about his invention, was told that he could keep his cars as long as he removed their trademarks, and was ordered to pay DMC’s £20,633 legal costs. The judge warned him that if he did not remove the trademarks he could face prison.
Speaking after the court case, he told CornwallLive: "It's a complete victory as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't be more victorious because I'm catching a flight out to Hollywood about making a movie using my car. If the Texan company want to sue Hollywood and Netflix, let them.
"I have no intention of removing my father's stolen trademark from a car that should have been released. They can lock me up like they locked up my father. They can't put an inventor in prison - I created something amazingly fantastical that's caused interest from all over the world. I'm not going to give up."
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