Ban On 2020 Mahindra Roxor Lifted in US

On Wednesday, the International Trade Commission (ITC) concluded that Mahindra and Mahindra’s latest design of the Roxor does not infringe the intellectual property rights of Jeep. It also means that the ban of Mahindra Roxor in the US which was imposed six months ago on due to intellectual property right violation will be removed.

2020 Mahindra Roxor is no longer banned in the US market   

To be more specific, the US regulators declared that the new design of Roxor does not offend the “trade dress” of the Jeep Wrangler. In October, the administrative law judge also recommended that the earlier ban would not be applied to Mahindra Roxor after it received the design updates.

In a recent statement, Mahindra said, “The ruling validates Mahindra's redesign of the highly popular Roxor off-road vehicle, Mahindra is now permitted to manufacture and distribute the redesigned 2021 Roxor." On the other hand, FCA, the mother company of Jeep, stated that it will appeal against this decision, saying, “While FCA is disappointed with the commission's decision regarding the redesign, we believe we will be successful in appealing this decision.”

In law terms, trade dress refers to the unique design characteristics that are widely identified with a product and set it apart from the rest. In this case, FCA identifies the boxy shape along with other details like the front grille, round headlights as distinctive to the Jeep Wrangler.

The old Mahindra Roxor was banned due to intellectual property rights dispute with Jeep Wrangler

Back in June, the ICT ruled that Mahindra Roxor infringed the intellectual property rights of FCA’s 2019 Jeep Wrangler, hence, banning the sales of this car model. As a result, a limited exclusion order along with a cease and desist order was issued against the sales and import of Mahindra Roxor in the US market.

Fortunately, Mahindra worked on the redesigned 2020 version of the Mahindra Roxor, and this time, its design was accepted by the US regulators. In the meanwhile, the ban order is still applicable to the older version of the car.