It wasn't really the car brand Tesla that Amanj Ali wanted to pay tribute to. Nevertheless, he now owes more than 100,000 Danish kroner.
It began as a tribute to the Serbian electrical engineer Nikola Tesla but has ended as a nightmare for 41-year-old Amanj Ali.
In 2020, he opened a restaurant in England, which he named after Tesla. So the man, not the car brand. Tesla Chicken & Pizza.
However, Tesla – i.e. the car brand, not the deceased inventor – has since looked angry. In fact, Tesla is so upset about the name, which the brand believes is harmful to the car business, that Amanj Ali was dragged to court.
The BBC writes that.
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And in the British legal system, the car brand's point of view is supported. The company, of which Elon Musk is today the director, was founded in 2003. So seven years before Ali opened the restaurant.
However, it was not until September 2022 that Tesla took him to court. However, it has ever since been a major source of stress and poor sleep, says Amanj Ali to the media.
– I slept badly, sometimes I couldn't work, according to the BBC from Amanj Ali in court.
– I'm just a small businessman with a small chicken shop against a huge company owned by the richest man in the world.
In addition to the 12,000 pounds Amanj Ali claims to have spent out of his own pocket on the case, he was also ordered to pay the car brand Tesla 4,000 pounds, equivalent to 35,000 Danish kroner, in compensation.
Tesla believed that the restorer could exploit the car brand's name and reputation in an 'unfair way'. And so the court agreed with the car brand's lawyers.
For Amanj Ali, the matter ends here. He does not have the money to appeal the case. But if he had, he would have gone ahead with the case, he says.
