Ford launch Ferrari lawsuit over F150

You cannot call Champagne Champagne uless it was from­ the region it supposed be. All the rest is simply­ call 'sparkling wine'. Similarly, Ford as a­ major company cannnot allow any other motor company to­ use conflicting trade names to confuse the public and­ the image of Ford brand. I am sure Ferrai would not­ like to see McLaren naming its car MPF-150? Do they? ­ Ferrari, I suggest you stop trying to do a Italian job­ or do a Belusconi on us!! Chavo mutu bella if that­ makes any sense!

next up for ferrari: tv commercials with dennis leary­ which even though he is speaking english still need to­ be subtitled in english.

Sorry Paulhancock, but you're making up new laws. ­ To prove trademark infringement, you do not have to­ prove financial damages. If the trademark belongs to­ you, no one can use the name whether they gain from­ using it or not. The fact that someone else used the­ name F150 before Ford also doesn't matter unless­ the former user got a trademark on the name. If you­ have a trademark and you don't enforce your rights­ to it when you know others are using it, you can lose­ your rights to it. That is why Ford is protecting­ their trademark. It has nothing to do with whether­ one product could be confused with the other. You­ could try to market F150 toothpaste and Ford would sue­ you for the use of their name even though no one would­ mistake a tube of toothpaste for a pickup truck. ­ Ferrari backed down immediately and altered the name of­ their car as soon as Ford sued them because they had no­ legal arguement from the get-go. This has nothing to­ do with grudges Ford has against Ferrari or any of the­ other foolish motives posters are suggesting. If Ford­ wants to protect its trademark, they have no choice but­ to sue.

Well, this obviously provided a little cheap publicity­ for Ford; and more than a little embarrassment for­ Ferrari.
Does Ford really think F-150 buyers follow­ Formula 1?
Does Formula 1 approach the level of­ general interest to most Americans?
Surely, Ferrari had­ no intention of invoking the connotation "bloated­ pack mule" for it's new race car with an F150­ designation.
Infringement cases have been thrown out­ for less than the difference of hyphen between these­ two, let alone the many reasons of commercial­ differentiation cited by other commenters.
Should Ford­ be concerned about being charged for bringing a­ frivolous lawsuit?
... good thing Ford no longer uses­ the Bronco insignia with a horse up on two hooves;­ Ferrari might have a lot of fun with that ...

Hello Paul Hancock,
The F150 trademark stands as a­ trademark just because manufacturers lodge every model­ name they use as a trademark with their local­ Intellectual property office, they often lodge names­ they don't use just in case. If anyone wanted to­ check they would probably find F140 and F160 are also­ lodged amoung many others, in the US a Trademark­ won't "take" unless it is used, that is­ you actually need to sell a product in the US under­ that name or else the courts will overule any action on­ the basis of lack of use.

George,
The number one­ enemy of a trademark is "common usage" if a­ term falls into common usage you basically lose your­ trademark, which is tragic especially when you are­ talking about the number one selling car/vehicle­ worldwide. whether or not the particular Ferrari is for­ sale it is a commercial venture and as a result, money­ will be made from it and that is the bit that matters.­ If you or I want to call our old chev pickup a­ "Ford F150" even add the logos, as I­ understand the law in the US, we can do so (Don't­ try it) but the minute we make any money off the­ vehicle the trouble starts, Ford could then claim that­ their trademark influenced the­ "marketability" and they have a right to­ legal recourse.

Houninym,
A memory stick is lodged as­ a trademark in the category of computer or electronic­ hardware or whatever the US equivalent is, where the­ Cars are lodged under the Land vehicles category. So in­ the eyes of Trademark law a world of difference in the­ two articles.

JD Redd,
Yes there were words about the­ Peugeot 1007, and the dealers and journalists were­ requested to use the the term "one thousand and­ and seven" I don't think it went to the courts­ but was more of a cautious line taken by Peugeot.­ Peugeot PR people are Gentlemen!

To the unamed,
If­ Peugeot didn't complain about the 908 porsche, well­ that's their perogative, but they probably could­ have m

Sorry fish, but if this goes to court the judge will­ have to decide what was Fords loss over them using the­ name and what was Ferraris gain. Ford could only gain­ over this so even if the court rules in favour of ford,­ they wont get any compensation. Check on the web, there­ are loads of things witha F150 logo, at the end of the­ day its a letter and a number, not a name, how can­ anyone defend a copyright on that. Check google and you­ will find that the F150 logo originally belonged to a­ south African warship SAS President Kruger F150. Are­ they persuing Ford? I say again and its you who fails­ to understand, the car is not for sale so there is no­ monetary gain. They could call it the the Ferrari KFC,­ Bigmac, Fiesta, Cortina, Astra, whatever. are BskyB­ being persued by GM for by calling their satellites­ Astra? are Durex being persued for calling their­ nodders fiesta,? the Ford truck and Ferraris race ARE­ as far apart as these examples even ignoring the fact­ that THE FERRARI IS NOT FOR SALE!

F1 car capitalise on the name of a @#$% yankee truck.­ yeah right!

Ford and Ferrari have had too many fueds to mention­ going back to the 60's when anyone who was anyone­ owned a Ferrari or an E type etc. some of the racing­ fueds were well catalogued and very well known GT40 v­ Daytona etc. Not too many years ago Enzo Ferrari flatly­ refused to sell his beloved company to Ford and so the­ story goes that FIAT bought Ferrari from under their­ noses once again Ford were left out. So they bought­ ????? AML and why did they do that ? So they could buy­ technology for making fast cars go around corners that­ were also pretty. Shame on Ford still smarting after­ having their noses bloodied do they want ? Like it or­ not it probably hurts Ford even more that FIAT bid for­ GM 2 years ago but GM was sold to one of the major­ creditors Magna a Canadian company.

If you have a copyrighted name and knowingly fail to­ defend your rights to its use, you have given up that­ right and it leaves the door open for others to use the­ name. It doesn't matter if the products­ they're selling are different or not. When you­ have a name representing your product, you want that­ name to be associated only with your product. I'm­ surprised at how many posters don't seem to­ understand that. It was poor judgement on­ Ferrari's part to use the exact same designation­ for their car that was already well-associated with a­ Ford pickup. They should have called the car the­ Ravioli 150 or whatever from the start.

ford is a good car maker, but hell you cant mix between­ ford f 150 pickup worth 20or30k
with a 3 millions­ formula one racing ferrari just cuz both has f-150 as­ logo..lol
that is retarted people.

fords F150 looks like ferraris F40, F50, F60

if ford is worried about its f150 logo,they better ­ check out another italian firm. garelli,maker of the­ f150 scooters.oops.sorry garelli

wasnt there a lawsuit a few years ago about peugeot­ using 007 and not being able to call it "double­ O" ??

Rick,
thats all well and good but the Ferrari is not­ for sale, so how can the name F150 be a trademark?­ sorry but to apply it to models and t shirts is a bit­ lame. That is not their core business and has nothing­ to do with whats going on here. Your analogy with­ planes and cars is applicable here because the Ferrari­ is not for sale, you will try to tell me next that­ Ferrari will sell more t shirts and models because they­ have the same name as a Ford truck. A decent barraster­ (the same one that got them off the team orders issue?)­ will rip that argument to shreds. Ford should be paying­ Ferrari for the advertising space

Who in their right minds will confuse Ford (succesful­ in the states) pickup truck to Ferraris F1 car? ­ Ferrari have take the first step to avoid any­ "confusion" by some dumb yanks

Stewart..............40 was used in the 50's in­ England.
I have tried some Detroits finest and it­ didn't float my boat.
The Ford Exploder­ would'nt go round corners,the Jeep broke it's­ rear axle after 120,000 miles,and the Chrysler Voyager­ kept falling apart until at last the gearbox cried­ enough and it disgraced itself in traffic.The Mustang­ wallowed like a Hippo and although the power of the AC­ Cobra i drove was superb,it still hadn't the fun­ factor of the old Jag!
As for Clarkson well i guess­ he's driven more than me and is entitled to his­ opinion.
I owned a garage and have repaired @#$% near­ everything and driven lots more than most,including an­ F150 pick-up and if that ain't initiated then i­ give up.!
Sorry.

Is Ford going to sue Imation over the Defender F150­ memory stick as well? Seems like equally clear a­ copyright violation to me and about as easy to mistake­ a F1 racing car or a memory stick for a pickup truck.

I've just bought an F150. You can't have, you­ can't afford a Ferrari. Not a Ferrari you chump,a­ Ford pickup truck; a what?!

Well, from all angle and law,i think Ford know what­ they are doing,i reason with Rick's comment and­ other reasonabble fellows.Can we say Ford and ford are­ not the same?since Farrari said they are using F 150 to­ cellebrate their 150 years,is better fot FARRARI to use­ F150y or Fy150.The two logo can be deceiving.(F-150­ AND F150).

But Rick Peugot were comfortable with the Porsche 908­ though and both that and the new FIAT are racers.