Alistair,
The car manufacturing world is a very strange one, when just simple things like the Porsche 901 became the 911 because Peugeot objected to Porsche using any three digit number where the middle number was 0, asserting ownership of the naming rights in key markets, and having already sold many models with that scheme. We can try and rationalise what real benefit Peugeot gained till the cows come home but at some point they would reach the end of the range X09 (eg 209, 309) ...
And if you think this is heavy handed on the part of JLR do a search on the actions taken by Rolex to protect its brand and trademarks, taking action against and even closing down second hand watch dealers for unauthorised use of their name. We may not like it , but that's the way the world operates today.
regards
