In an effort to prevent other manufacturers – and a few ambitious clone-makers – to make any copycat versions of the Bugatti 16C Galibier concept, the Volkswagen Group has decided to file trademark patents of the concept car at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

We’ve all seen from our experiences in the past how a luxury car ends up being cloned by rather cheap copycats and, each and every time, the resulting product completely butchers the original template of the model.

And that’s not even considering that most of these ‘cheap alternatives’ can do this because of a lack of trademarks from the original designers. With the Bugatti 16C Galibier, however, Volkswagen is making sure to cover all of its bases. The car, while still a concept and has not yet been officially approved for the production line, is nonetheless expected to succeed the Veyron->ke1112 when it ceases production in 2012.

Powered by a 16-cylinder, 8.0-liter flex-fuel engine and an eight-speed automatic transmission that channels power through all four wheels, the 16C Galibier is expected to reach around 800 horsepower, a drop-off from the 1001 horsepower the Veyron is capable of. We’re glad that Volkswagen Groups finally decided to have its design trademarked. We’ve had enough of those abhorrently horrendous cheap clones popping up from all corners of the world to last us multiple lifetimes.

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