OREANDA-NEWS. Toyota, Lamborghini and Michelin appealed the patent application of the Russian luxury company Aurus (Project "Cortege") to the European Bureau of Intellectual Property because of the similarity to the degree of confusion between brand names and models of these manufacturers, reports the newspaper "Izvestia". According to foreign companies, the name Aurus is confusingly similar to the names of their brands, for example, Toyota has a compact Auris hatchback, Lamborghini has a Urus crossover, and Michelin has its own sub-brand Taurus.

In turn, the Ministry of Industry and Trade don't see any problems due to a patent dispute. They said that at the moment FSUE “NAMI” is registering the Aurus brand in Europe and the Middle East. In January 2019, the Aurus brand was registered by the Patent Office Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), and in March 2019 it was registered in Latvia and Lithuania.

The company Aurus declined to comment on the publication. A source close to NAMI said that, due to the dispute, the prospects for European sales were in doubt. "This story is not very good. If you can only agree (with car companies) on some conditions that the signs will not cross the markets. Perhaps there will be a distinction, for example, Aurus is sold in Switzerland, but not in Spain. Although the most obvious option is rebranding for this market, "he said. The main argument of Russian lawyers will be the indication that the Auris, Urus and Taurus brands coexisted normally in the market, despite the consonance of the names.

Aurus originally bearing the unofficial name of "Cortege", has been implemented on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2012, and the Central Research Automotive and Automotive Institute (NAMI) took part in the development. The model range includes four classes of cars - sedan, SUV, minivan and limousine.