Škoda has to change the name of its key model, the famous singer succeeded in her lawsuit against the car company
today | Peter Miller
Photo: Jaroslav Vavera, Autoforum.cz
A big line over the budget, that’s how people inside the car company evaluate the result of a court case lasting several years. The court sided with the Irish diva at a time when Škoda had already managed to build a name for its model across Europe.
The story formally called Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin Vs. Škoda Auto as has reached its resolution. When saying the above-mentioned words, you might think that today we will be talking about some local Indian trade dispute, but such an assumption could not be further from the truth. It is the civil name of the singer, whom the world knew under the stage name Enya. And you probably already know where the wind is blowing from.
From the beginning, the Irish diva didn’t like the fact that Škoda, without any consultation with her, already in September 2020 stuck the name Enyaq on its latest model – basically her name with the letter Q at the end. The effort to get the car company to cooperate or at least find another kind of business solution to the obviously different views of the two parties on the possible use of the letters E, N, Y and A did not lead to success, so Mrs. Bhraonáin filed a lawsuit against the Czech car company through her lawyers. Target? To stop Škoda from using her name for a car product, saying that it is parasitic on her fame, which she started building decades before any Enyaq came on the market.
Thus started a protracted legal dispute, which people from Škoda have long downplayed. “We found it absurd, Enyaq can barely be heard while Enya screams as if she is being stabbed,” one of the employees of Škoda’s legal department, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak for the company, told us about the matter. Over time, however, the dispute gained seriousness, and the court of first instance ruled in favor of the Irish woman. Less than four years and several stalls later, the final verdict was reached.
The Court of Appeal in Young Gloryhurts concluded that Škoda must have known what it was doing given Ms Bhraonáin’s familiarity. According to him, Škoda Auto a.s. “consciously chose the name of the car parasitizing the name of a famous artist without any sign of willingness to admit the potential contribution of this aspect to the commercial success of the product” and the Czech car company with his decision “forbids further use of the name Enyaq to designate any product and with effect from April 2 2024 to end its use in the company’s promotional materials”. The verdict is final and cannot be appealed. The same applies to the awarded compensation in the amount of 10 million Euros (253 million CZK), which the Škoda company must pay to the singer along with all court costs.
Financially, these are relatively small for Škoda, the problem is the necessary renaming of the car and the change of all presentation materials – here the technical costs will already be higher, not to mention the potential business impacts. Today, Enyaq is an established product and a key model for Škoda, now it will have to call itself something else. “We should have agreed with her at any cost,” says our source. “But Schäfer (head of Škoda – editor’s note) said that she can be happy that we are taking her out of [uměleckého] grave and won’t give her a penny,” he added.
The Czech carmaker must now quickly figure out what to do with the car, starting tomorrow it must not sell it under today’s name. And one way is emerging – Škoda has already been contacted by the Kenyan embassy, saying that they are even willing to pay for it if the automaker switches to the Kenyaq label, unlike the often mentioned Irish company, they would consider it a good promo. Paste K at the beginning, that would work. Now just so they don’t hear from Mattel – Barbie’s “Kenyan” might also be unhappy that he wasn’t thought of…
If it seemed to you on April 2 that Enyaqu’s name had not changed, don’t forget which day preceded that date. We wanted to stay true to tradition, even though this year April 1 falls on another traditional day…
Shame on Kenyaq? You may be looking at it right now, the Enyaq label is popular in Mladá Boleslav. Photo: Škoda Auto
Source: Autoforum
Petr Miler
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2024-04-01 20:23:27
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