Battle over MG badge shifts up a gear

Battle over MG badge shifts up a gear

A descendant of an English motoring dynasty is taking on China’s largest carmaker in a battle over one of Britain’s iconic brands - the MG sportscar.

At stake are two separate plans to relaunch the historic badge in the UK following the collapse of MG Rover in 2005.

The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, the Chinese manufacturer that acquired the MG assets through a merger last year, has invested tens of millions of pounds in restarting production at the former MG Rover factory in Longbridge, Birmingham.

SAIC’s debut model, the two-seater MG TF roadster, is expected to be delivered to UK showrooms in September.

However, a hitch has emerged, in the form of William Riley, a motoring enthusiast and descendant of the founders of the famous Riley car marque.

Mr Riley claims that he owns the rights to produce the MG X Power, a limited edition handmade racing coupe that has an £85,000 price tag.

The dispute, which has rumbled on for the past year, has recently shifted up a gear. Mr Riley has tried to revoke 32 other MG trademarks held by Nanjing Automotive Corporation, which merged with SAIC in 2007.

Now the UK Intellectual Property Office is being asked to weigh in on who owns the rights to the MG name in the UK.

Mr Riley’s X-Power, by contrast, is put together from thousands of leftover parts and a chassis that he imported from Italy. He acquired the parts in 2007 from the liquidators of one of the companies in the MG Rover Group.

Mr Riley wants to produce five or six cars per month, he says, aimed at British motoring enthusiasts.

Mr Riley contends that he legally acquired the intellectual property rights to the MG X-Power from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the liquidators of MG Sports & Racing, and is entitled to use the name.

That does not sit well with the Chinese, who claim that any and all X-Power trademarks had been transferred to NAC long before Mr Riley came into the picture. NAC says it intends to defend its right to the brand vigorously.

(Financial Times)