The bean counters over at the Volkswagen Group are still gauging customer reactions to the Bugatti 16C Galibier concept to see if there's enough interest to build a production version, but just to be on the safe side - we all remember the Chinese Rolls Royce Phantom clone - they decided to trademark the design of the sports saloon at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The trademark was applied for the concept model, so there's new to be seen in the design sketches.
If the 16C Galibier receives the 'green light', it will most likely go on sale after Bugatti ends production of the Veyron production in 2012.
The almost production-ready concept model features a 16-cylinder, 8.0-litre flex-fuel engine with two-stage supercharging that is believed to produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 horsepower.
Power is channeled to all-four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission while Bugatti also developed a unique suspension and special ceramic brakes for the sports saloon.
