The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed Carrol Shelby’s 2009 suit against Factory Five. Shelby filed a similar suit against the kit car producer back in 2000 alleging trade dress violations of "designs that relate to the vintage 1960's automobiles created, designed and made by Carroll Shelby". After almost 24 months of litigation, the Court dismissed Shelby’s claims.
U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris explained that Shelby was legally barred from seeking legal redress as to Factory Five's manufacturing and sale of the Coupe design as these claims had already been settled in the earlier lawsuit. Furthermore, Court's ruling dismisses all existing and future similar claims by Shelby against Factory Five. Shelby did not say if the company wants to appeal or not.
One of the conclusions of the first lawsuit was that Carroll Shelby of filled the legal action without trying to settle the manner directly with Factory Five Racing.
David Smith, Factory Five's President stated that the Daytona Coupe (the was the main apple of discontent) was designed by Pete Brock, not Shelby, and that the car only came to the world as a racer, never being homologated for public roads use. "In the 2000 lawsuit, Factory Five had ample evidence to prove that Shelby had no legal rights to the shape of the Daytona Coupe and COBRA 427 S/C," said Smith.
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