Just a few days after we heard that Steiner is taking Haas to court in North Carolina because he says they haven’t paid him the money he’s owed, now we find out that Haas is suing Steiner in California.
Haas says that Steiner and his publisher, Ten Speed Press, did something wrong by using pictures in a book that they weren’t supposed to use, according to Haas’ trademark rules.
Haas says in the legal papers: “In 2023, without asking Haas Automation first, Steiner wrote, marketed, and sold a book called ‘Surviving to Drive.’ This book used Haas Automation’s logos and look without permission, which is against the rules.”
Haas told Steiner about this, but Steiner didn’t do anything to fix it, so Haas decided to take legal action.
“Steiner keeps selling and talking about this book in different places, like in print and online, even though he’s not supposed to. This is breaking Haas Automation’s rights to their own logos and designs.”
Haas wants money from Steiner and his publisher for this, and they want a jury trial to decide what should happen.
Haas says they own trademarks for their machine tools business and racing activities, and they show in the legal papers which pictures in the book they’re talking about.
Steiner and Haas stopped working together last year when his contract ended.
He was with the team since it started in 2016 and was well known in F1 because of his appearances in the Netflix show “Drive to Survive.”
If the court case in California goes forward, they’ll have to decide if Steiner and Ten Speed Press had a good reason to use Haas’ logos and pictures in the book without asking first. Sometimes, it’s okay to use someone else’s logos or pictures if you’re talking about them in a certain way, like for news or criticism.
