MJP911

Ford filed a TM suit against Ferrari SpA in the Eastern District of Michigan, claiming Ferrari's use of the F150 moniker for its new F1 entry might cause consumer confusion with the Ford pickup of the same name. I guess if they are both painted red I can understand how one might be confused . . . .

Chads996

Like we didn't see this coming.

C.

Larry Herman

Serves them right. Ferrari & Porsche et. al. are always going after any "unauthorized" usage of their names, no matter how innocent it may be.

Veloce Raptor

Yup...LOL!









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

mglobe

Is it time for Ford to win LeMans again?

Mark in Baltimore

LOL, yeah, Ford's image might be tarnished by any association with Ferrari.

Veloce Raptor

A trademark is a trademark. Ford would be remiss if it didn't defend its trademarks with the same douchebag veracity as Ferrari does its own.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Lemming

Agreed.

ltc

And why are our cars called 911s rather than 901s?

Lothar

I think the penalty for the trademark infringement should be that Ferrari has to compete with a Ford F-150 for the 2011 F1 season.

chris walrod

Peu(cough)got

bauerjab

In case anyone is interested in more specifics.

Law360, New York (February 9, 2011) -- Ferrari SpA's new F150 race car has a moniker too close to Ford Motor Co.'s name for its pickup trucks, Ford said in a Lanham Act suit filed Wednesday.

Ford has called its basic pickup trucks F-150s since 1975, and Ferrari's name for its new Formula One race car might confuse consumers, Ford said in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The automaker wants the court to force Ferrari to pay treble damages under the Lanham Act and change the car's name to something else.

Ferrari unveiled its new F150-branded F1 racer in January to a large international audience, and registered the FerrariF150.com domain name, Ford said in its complaint.

Beyond giving its racer a similar name, Ferrari has also ripped off Ford's characteristic F-150 logo, according to the complaint.

Ford has been calling its full-sized pickup trucks F-150s for 36 years, and has had a trademark on the name F-150 for merchandising since 1995, it said in the complaint. The company took out a U.S. trademark for the use of F-150 to describe automobiles in 1997, and received a European trademark in 2000, it said.

“Ferrari's wrongful use of the mark 'F150' dilutes, blurs, tarnishes and whittles away the distinctiveness of the F-150 trademark,” Ford said.

The automaker expressed concern that its consumers might be confused by Ferrari's use of the name F150. Several bloggers have already authored posts jokingly asking whether Ferrari has begun to make pickup trucks, Ford said.

“At a minimum, these postings provide strong evidence of actual dilution,” Ford said. The company has spent nearly $2 billion on advertising building the F-150 brand since the late 1990s, it said.

Ford wants an injunction that bars Ferrari from using the F-150 mark and forces it to transfer its F150-branded goods to Ford.

The automaker also wants Ferrari to turn over any F150-connceted profits, pay treble damages, and pay a $100,000 fine under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act for the FerrariF150.com website.

A representative for Ferrari could not be reached for comment. According to the Ford, the company has said the name F150 refers to the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

paradisenb

Audi, I believe.

Ferrari should rename it the 150F. Problem solved.

Good for Ford. F & P are annoyingly infamous for defending their copyrights.

stuttgart46

Why would Ferrari even try this? Publicity stunt? You would think that their legal department would have caught this before the name/number went public.

ilko

Looks like Ferrari have been put on notice and have changed the name already:

That new name is particularly stupid and I don't see them getting away with it either...