KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 — The current dispute over the Lotus name in Formula One will extend to the start of this year's season, after a British High Court dismissed an application for an immediate summary judgment on the case.

The application, which was submitted by Proton subsidiary Group Lotus yesterday was thrown out by a High Court judge on the same day even before the arguments were read out. The British High Court has now fixed March 21 as the date for a full trial instead.

"Team Lotus is delighted that we were successful at the Summary Judgment Application hearing today and that the Judge threw out Group Lotus' application even before hearing the arguments of the barristers on either side.

"Although this decision was never in doubt, it means that we start the 2011 season under the Team Lotus name," said an official statement from airline tycoon Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes' racing team.

Yesterday's summary judgment application was about whether Group Lotus had the right to terminate a licensing deal it had previously signed with Team Lotus.

The summary judgment effectively means that both Group Lotus and Team Lotus will kick off the upcoming season using the same Lotus F1 brand.

"Today's case is group desperate attempt to use their one way unlawful termination of license agreement of lotus racing. Saying one Malaysia can't use lotus. Part of post termination clauses. So nothing changes on team lotus," said Fernandes yesterday on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Proton chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh said recently that Group Lotus had every right to be a Formula One title sponsor as it not only owned the rights to the Lotus name but also manufactured sports cars.

The car maker has repeatedly stated that it will resist any attempt by Fernandes to use the name "Team Lotus" in the Formula One season this year, saying it has terminated his 1Malaysia Racing Team's rights to the Lotus Racing name for 2011.

The car maker alleged that the licence was terminated over the racing team's flagrant and persistent breaches of licence, which were damaging to the Lotus brand.

Proton maintains that wholly owned subsidiary Group Lotus owns the rights to the iconic name for the team that was launched by Lotus founder Colin Chapman.

However, Lotus Racing chief executive Riad Asmat has disputed Proton's claims, insisting that the Lotus Racing name belonged to Team Lotus Ventures, which is a part of Fernandes's Tune Group.

Tune Group had bought over Team Lotus Ventures in early September last year.

Riad, a former Proton general manager, further claimed that his old company had tried to buy the rights of Team Lotus Ventures from its owner David Hunt but was unsuccessful.

Insiders have however pinned the dispute on Lotus chief executive Dany Bahar, claiming that he is responsible for influencing the recent decisions of Proton/Group Lotus.

Nadzmi has also denied that he had given the green light to Group Lotus to enter F1 to spite Fernandes, maintaining that he had good ties with the Air Asia founder.

Group Lotus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Proton and runs Lotus Cars Limited, which has two operating divisions — Lotus Engineering and Lotus Cars. Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy based in Norfolk, the United Kingdom.

MELBOURNE, Jan 25 — China's Li Na stormed into her second successive Australian Open semi-final today, recovering from early stumbles in both sets before blowing away German Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-4 with a ruthless barrage of clean hitting.

Li, her country's first top-10 player, was broken in the first game of each set but attacked the German's serve furiously to close out the match in 80 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

Petkovic appeared nervous on her grand slam quarter-final debut and sprayed two forehands to concede the first set.

Serving to stay in the match in the second, Petkovic slapped a forehand long to hand her Chinese opponent victory, Li celebrating the win by yelping "Yeah!" and grinning at her husband and coach Jiang Shan in the stands.

Li will play either top seed Caroline Wozniacki or Francesca Schiavone for a place in the final. — Reuters