In January, news broke that vehicle designer Henrik Fisker was suing his previous employer, Aston Martin, for $100 million.
The lawsuit was just another strain in a growing entanglement of disagreements between Fisker and the U.K. automaker. It all started in 2015 when Aston Martin sued Fisker for his Thunderbolt GT car, a vehicle Aston claimed was too similar to the Aston Martin Vanquish. The claims were eventually dropped when Fisker agreed not to move forward with the project, but all was not smoothed over yet.
When Fisker showed a teaser image of his new Force 1 supercar ahead of its reveal at the Detroit Motor Show, Aston Martin immediately sent the designer a letter demanding he not show the actual vehicle. Fisker promptly filed a $100 million suit in damages against Aston Martin for civil extortion.
Now there appears to be another resolution, this time with Aston Martin yielding. In a statement from Fisker, he states:
“I have dismissed the lawsuit against Aston Martin and I am pleased this matter is resolved without any further action needed. Since the Force 1 was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January, it’s abundantly clear that the Force 1 and Aston Martin vehicles are completely different in design. Now that Aston Martin has recognized their initial error in judgment and not interfered in the development of the program since the unveiling, we can put this action behind us and get on with making exceptional driving machines. VLF Automotive has put in substantial investment and efforts into the development of Force 1, and the vehicle is on schedule to be delivered to the first customers in June. We will continue to protect our substantial investment that has gone into the creation of our products, and take whatever action necessary to protect our intellectual property rights.”
In reality, Aston Martin’s issue with the Force 1 was unclear anyway: the Force 1 is based on the Dodge Viper and looks far more like a coupe version of the Fisker Karma than it does an Aston Martin model, but oh, well.
Let’s hope the two parties can finally seek some common ground. After all, when they were working in tandem, the automotive world was gifted some incredibly cool products.
