After this Lotus vs Lotus case I gotta say I wouldn't like to see the old team names revived. A team is more than its name, it's also the people behind it. Also, if a team exits F1 because of, eg., financial problems, IMO it should be brought back within a couple of years when they could still continue from where they left. With longer non-operating periods the team shouldn't be brought back without the support of the old team's key peoples. Otherwise they would be cosidered as a new team, separate from the old, original one. Also, IMO new teams should build their own brands.
So, it's LRGP that the key people (ie. the Chapmans) of the old Team Lotus support, and I understand it. GL is a company that ACBC founded and it shared the Lotus brand with TL. Of course, it was the Chapmans' decision do sold only GL, but maybe it was their as well as Warr and Collins's purpose that TL & GL work together, despite separate owners. That's why the Chapmans supported Lotus Racing as GL supported LR, too. Anyway, I found this website which says TL and GL were at times, even when ACBC owned both of them, quite distant.
http://www.gglotus.org/ggrace/ggfaq/general.html
QUOTE
Team Lotus was split off from the Lotus Engineering Company in 1954 in order to protect the companies from each others financial problems.
At times, Team Lotus and Lotus Cars were very closely associated with each other, for example in the mid-1980s and early 1990s when Lotus Engineering's Active Suspension technology was used in the Team Lotus Formula One cars, while, at other times, they were rather distant from each other, for example, in the 1970s, several Team Lotus and Lotus Cars models were given the same Type number.
Now that the Team Lotus name is owned by someone not associated with Group Lotus or the Chapman family, I suspect that there is no connection between Group Lotus and Team Lotus.
The page is from 2003, so I think it's quite unbiased.
There are many possible outcomes in the courcase:
TL may use TL name (only in F1) and GL may use Lotus name as long it's not Team Lotus
TL are the only body who may use Lotus name in F1
GL are the only body who may use Lotus name, also in F1
Only TL may use TL name (in F1), but only with GL's consent (even GL can't use TL name in F1)
Whatever the court will decide, I find it ridiculous that 1MRT keeps on using TL name. Now, with the loss of Chapman support, they can't anymore call themselves as a continuation of the old Team Lotus. I'm sure money isn't the problem. GL would definitely give them the FOM money they would lose, if 1MRT gave up the TL name.
The fact that LRGP is now a UK team shows that GL is more than a sponsor for them. I like about the fact that they are now officially a British team because UK is Lotus's home country. Also, from now on I call the team Lotus Renault, instead of Renault, because of the strong Lotus involvement. Renault as a chassis name isn't so bad thing for me. Many F1 teams have used customer cars at the beginning and now so does Lotus Renault. The most important thing is the Lotus involvement. Still, I don't like about them. I don't like that GL ended 1MRT's licence just to get involved in another team. Still, the licence terminating would be OK for me if GL provided a proper reason for it, but if there were one, they probably would've already told it.