Factory Five

Factory Five Racing, the kit car company based in Wareham, Mass., last week won a lawsuit brought by Carroll Shelby, according to President David Smith. It was Shelby who in the early 1960s successfully put together an AC car body from Britain with a Ford V-8 engine to create the legendary AC Cobra sports car.

It is one of the most duplicated of cars and Factory Five has been producing a kit version of it for years. Shelby sued Factory Five back in 2000 and the result was a mixed bag.

Under a ruling in 2001, Factory Five was allowed to continue producing the car in the shape of Shelby’s Cobra, but could not use the Cobra name. It called its kit cars the Mark 3 and Mark 4 Roadster.

Shelby subsequently sued two years ago claiming Factory Five’s Type 65 Coupe kit car bore “designs confusingly similar to the Daytona Coupe Trade Dress.”

However, Smith said the U.S. District Court ruled in Factory Five’s favor based on the prior finding that it could not be sued for trade dress, or the shape of the car.

“The motion to dismiss was approved,” Smith said from Wareham. “(Shelby) had no right to sue for shape.”