Porsche claims to own the "GT3" name
03-25-2015, 03:50 AM
#18
An Education Learned at the School of Hard Knocks
An Education Learned at 'The School of Hard Knocks'
Porsche learned to play the game after some unfortunate brushes
with trademark & copyright infringements in the mid-1950's and
early 1960's. They first encountered a problem in 1954 when they
gave their MY1955 356 models the side moniker 'Continental'.
It was meant to remind their growing American clientele that this
was indeed a European automobile in the finest tradition of sport
cars known to be manufactured in that continent! Ford wasn't
impressed. And it apparently reminded Porsche that it should
select another name for its model. Interestingly, Dieter Landenberger
(Leiter Historisches Archiv /Manager Historical Archives) tells me
he hasn't yet found any correspondence in the archives that Ford
officially sent to Porsche during this period asking them to forgo
the 'Continental' side script. So it might all have been all taken
care via a friendly chat over drinks between Ferry Porsche & his
friends at Ford Motor Company in Michigan. But by the summer
of 1955, Porsche prudently dropped the 'Continental' side script
and had replaced it with a more evocative 'European' moniker on
its new MY1956 356A models.
Soon that side script was dropped all together from the regular
models (it wasn't there on many late MY1956's and none from
MY1957 forward), although the specific model side-script for
the 'Carrera', 'Speedster' & 'Convertible D' was continued until
the 356A era ended in mid-1959.
I happen to own a pair of original 'Continental' and 'European'
side scripts in my personal memorabilia collection. They are
extremely hard to find and I feel very lucky to have them!
**************
Porsche's next big issue over a model name's infringement happened
in 1963/1964 when it introduced the company's next new product at
both the IAA in Frankfurt in 1963 and the Paris Auto Salon in 1964.
The company had envisioned calling its model '901' based on the
sequence design # for the project, just as the model '356' was based
on the design # for that earlier study.
But Peugeot had strong objections. It had registered a series of
models with three digits with a zero always in position #2.
By late 1964, Porsche folded its cards and caved in. It agreed to change
their new model's name to '911'. The rest is history.
So with those close calls with trademark/copyright infringements,
Porsche learned to play the game very well as time went on. Today,
they have few equals in that department...as Aston Martin recently
found out the hard way. But it was all from lessons learned in that
famous school - no, not my Wharton at Penn! - but a university called
'The School of Hard Knocks'.
Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel
.
03-25-2015, 02:04 PM
#21
Rennlist Member
Similar to Ford vs Ferrari and F-150
03-25-2015, 02:18 PM
#22
Nordschleife Master
Thread Starter
