London, May 8(ANI): Force India have been told to pay 650,000 pounds legal costs to Caterham and their chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne, within fourteen days by a High Court judge in a dispute over intellectual property involving Force India, Aerolab and Caterham.
The amount is on top of the 700,000 dollar in fees Force India had to shell out to Italian racing car design company Aerolab over the same case in March.
The judge discarded Force India's claim that there had been 'systematic copying' of their designs, saying they had 'come nowhere near establishing that was the case'.
The case cropped up when Aerolab trailed Force India for unpaid fees before Force India pointed finger at them and Team Lotus, Caterham's former identity, of misusing confidential information.
In his costs verdict on Friday, the judge awarded costs on a full indemnity basis to Gascoyne dating from November 2011, which is when his lawyers wrote to Force India's lawyers offering to settle the case, The BBC reports.
Gascoyne has been awarded costs on a standard basis before that date. Costs were awarded to Caterham's parent company 1MRT on the same basis.
The judge rejected Force India's point that costs awarded to 1MRT should be reduced because they had been found guilty of copyright infringement.
According to a statement from Force India: "The interim costs payments awarded to Mr Gascoyne and 1 Malaysia Racing in today's ruling are more than covered by funds already provided by Sahara Force India as security for costs pending the outcome of the case. (ANI)
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