GM Says Opel Patents 'Available' To Any New Owner
12 3월 2009 - 5:54AM
Dow Jones News
General Motors Corp. (GM) said Wednesday it would make sure any
potential buyer for its European Opel/Vauxhall operations would
have access to the company's patents, addressing a potential
barrier to a sale of the brands.
"Any intellectual property would be fully available to
Opel/Vauxhall and the new owner," GM spokesman Chris Preuss told
Dow Jones Newswires.
GM Europe is nearly out of cash, and GM Chief Operating Officer
Fritz Henderson said last week the company was willing to sell a
majority stake in Opel/Vauxhall as part of an effort to win EUR3.3
billion in aid from Germany and other European governments.
Its comment on the patents follows recent comments from a German
government official that GM has sold its Opel intellectual property
to the U.S. government.
GM said patents for all of its brands, belong to a U.S.-based
division of the company called the Global Technology
Organization.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel cited the uncertainty over the
patent ownership in an interview Wednesday with Bild, a daily
newspaper. She also said any commitment to aid the auto maker
hinged on what level independence an Opel with new investors would
have from GM.
A German official last week told Dow Jones Newswires that GM
doesn't own Opel patents following the sale of the rights to the
U.S. Treasury, adding that the company aimed to repurchase them at
a later stage.
GM's Preuss declined to comment on whether GM has put up any of
its patents up as collateral for the U.S. government loans keeping
GM afloat.
However, he said GM would ensure any new majority shareholder in
Opel would have access to the intellectual property.
- By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532;
sharon.terlep@dowjones.com.