Formula 1, patents and IP: New cars, same old secrecy

New 2022 regulations continue to accelerate innovation in Formula 1 – but is there a patently obvious problem?

Grand Prix weekends regularly draw an average global audience of 70.3 million viewers to watch open-wheel, single-seater formula racing cars reach top speeds of 215 mph.

Formula 1 is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (“FIA”), who have introduced new Technical Regulations for the 2022 season.

F1 is widely considered to be the pinnacle of motorsport: a frontier of engineering innovation, where teams are competitively driven to develop the fastest cars.

Many teams are owned by, or partnered with, companies that directly benefit from this cauldron of invention.

Talented engineers and their ideas are now more important than ever - but what legal protection is there to stop their innovations being copied or stolen?

Is there room for improvement?

The main protection for innovation in F1 resides in Trade Secrets, which are arguably less robust than patents.

However, Trade Secrets have the benefit of arising automatically provided the information meets the required standards, and registration is not required.

In 2012, F1 team Force India was awarded damages when two external consultants were held to have misused confidential information and infringed copyright by supplying confidential information to a rival team.

F1 teams already risk being the victims of corporate espionage, leaks, and other acts of skulduggery - which are already illegal under FIA Regulations.

So would F1 teams welcome a hypothetical “fast-track” patent system for more clear-cut protection? It is easy to imagine the answer - for their team, yes, for their competitors, no.

The current F1 ecosystem, formed 27 years before the modern UK patent system, has developed organically in a goldilocks-zone between perpetual litigation and a plagiarism free-for-all.

It is carefully balanced to benefit everyone – introducing patent law, no matter how modified, would likely reinvent the F1 wheel.

There are advantages to the current situation.

The market value of team staff, particularly engineers, remains high due to the specialist knowledge they can bring to their new team.

For example, Adrian Newey has designed ten different championship-winning cars in three different F1 teams and is one of the most revered engineers in motorsport.

In a sport where there are separate championships for drivers and constructors, it follows that just as F1 drivers are crowned Champions of the World, gifted team engineers deserve to be stars of their own show.

If you would like more information in relation to any IP, Dispute Resolution or Sports Law queries, please let us know and we will be happy to discuss further with you.

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