I suppose it was only a matter of time... http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2011/02/ford-to-ask-courts-to-stop-ferrari-from-using-f150-name.html We'll see how it plays out.
As someone stated awhile ago, Ferrari would do the same if the situation were reversed..... Like everyone - I was surprised to see Ferrari use that name...
To be honest no one knows about the ford f150 in europe. I think it's a d.ick move from ford though..
How can one patent a number? Ford must be really regretting it wasn't able to buy Ferrari back in 1963 ...
Yeah, they're still pissed they didn't get to run the Ferrari name into the ground by plastering it to the back of a Ford focus. haha
There's probably an equivalent amount of people outside of the US that knows what an F-150 is as there are people in the US who could name you any given Ferrari such as an F355, F430, F40, etc. But regardless of knowledge, the fact still stands that the F-150 is the world's best selling automobile and is currently in production. I think Ford wants to make sure when people use google image search, no Italian crap comes up when folks search for their trucks
Same thing happened with porsche and peugeot....the 911 was originally going to be the 901, but peugeot somehow had a trademark on all numbers with a zero in the middle...granted maybe the trademark was only applicable in one country, but Porsche didn't want to have a different name in one country vs another and therefore called the car the 911.
Ford actually LOST the rights to the "GT40" so they should know how the game is played...that's why the current sportscar was named "Ford GT"
Who took GT40? I always thought it was because the new GT wasn't in fact 40 inches tall, GT44.3 sounds silly
Yep. Same way Bertone /Lancia lost the name 'Stratos' and opened the door to that new one. Ford has no option but to fight the use of the name, and Ferrari should have been thinking a lot clearer.
I dunno, maybe one of the replica kit makers got a trademark in during a lapse???? LOL! that DOES sound pretty silly!!! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I would have been ok with the lawsuit if the Ferrari FF was called F150 But come on, a race car? you can't buy it, and by the time the lawsuit is over the car won't even run anymore. Good waste of time and money for the justice system.
I am really annoyed because I saw at my local Ford dealership they had "F150s on Sale Now" And I thought to myself how cool it would be to own a factory Ferrari F1 car. I went down there and all they had were these goofy pickups. The two are so close, I can see how people get confused
You're telling me. I actually went into that same dealership and bought me a F150. Drove it for over a week and couldn't figure out what is the big deal with driving an F1 car. They don't really accelerate or handle all that well. Finally one day I was talking with my neighbor and he pointed out to me that a Ford F150 truck is slightly different than a Ferrari F1 car. Wonder if its too late to return it to the dealer now.
I'm predicting that the lack of a hyphen in Ferraris F150 will allow them to use the name. The trademark for GT40 is owned by a company called Safir GT40 spares. The wiki says that the original offer to let ford use the name was for $40 million but that it was later dropped to $8 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT40
A British company called safir engineering owns the name gt40; negotiations between ford & safir did not go well when ford was bringing back the gt40....
Exactly Does anyone think for a minute Ferrari would sit still if Ford named a truck the F40? Ferrari attacks people all the time for just displaying the logo. Ferrari is attacking Ferrari clubs across the world for logo use and some of you guys think Ford is stupid? Get Fing real.
I think it's all utter nonsense. Stupid for Ferrari to name their car in such a way and stupid for this being an issue in the first place. The worst part is this won't be the last time some kind of issue like this happens