Seems that sometimes, if you make your point clearly everything can be resolved, and quickly at that. Helps somewhat if you go to court too. The Ford-Ferrari issue over the F150 nameplate looks to have been settled.
Ford had filed a lawsuit against Ferrari about the latter’s F150’s moniker for its 2011 Formula 1 car, stating that it was simply too close for comfort to its F-150 pickup, which is one of the best-selling vehicles in the US.
Reports have it that, faced with the lawsuit, Ferrari has backed down and announced that the racecar will now be called the F150th Italia, a name it says has been the official designation of the car all along. As of now, it will use the full description for the vehicle.
The Prancing Horse boys don’t really know why Ford is getting so hot under the collar over the name given to its racecar.
“Ferrari believes its own contender in the upcoming F1 Championship cannot be confused with any other types of commercially available vehicle whatsoever, nor can it give the impression that there is a link to another brand of road-going vehicle. Therefore it is very difficult to understand Ford’s viewpoint on the matter,” the company said in a statement.
Ford’s response was to say it never thought anyone would confuse its muscular truck with a F1 racecar, but the motive behind the action was about protecting the brand from being diluted. Think F-150 in any form, hyphen or not, think a particular truck and nothing else, not even a flash drive, that’s what the blue oval wants to retain.
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Sounds like a cheap FORD or FORD is cheap!! hahaha..better be F150th Italia.
A big boooo to the blue guys! Even tho Ferrari backed down from this, everyone knows Ford is the big loser here. I’m gonna name the next mosquito F-150 before I squash it! NAH! There’s your F-150! Sue me!!!
Dear All,
I thk Ford staff is a bunch of kids, who will argue with others just about a candy…
Lol…
dear Ford,
F150 will ‘confusing’ no one in 150 million yrs lahhh
How can Ford compare itself to Ferrari? Would someone think McCurry was operated by McDonald’s? :-)
immature ford! nobody in US would be confused about this coz nobody in US watch F1, they are all a bunch of NascarFag for crying out loud!
NascarFag?
RUDE
i’m with ford..
dont bash them over what they did..
a name is important..
especially if its renowned..
imagine if the name LOTUS can be use by any car company in the world that doesnt even have a slight connection to our Lotus..what would we feel?
what does Tata CPS sounds to u?
maybe if its Ferrari CPS then only we wont make any noise..LOL~
it can give many impressions, right or wrong to others imho..
another one comparing a road car with another road car. F1 is an on road car kah?
Tata CPS sound good n even better ferrari CPS…….ford should not angry rite…ford should be proud its ferrari not toyota f150
I’m with Ford in this one, although I love the brand Ferrari.
If Ferrari is pretty sure they are not in the wrong, then why the sudden announcement? It works as a mitigation factor in case the suit goes on.
Ford built a great reputation out of the F150, so much so that any car which resembles the name F150 whether it is F-150, F1-50 or even f15-0, would trigger the mind of a person who knows the F150. Imagine if Mercedes-Benz comes out with a sedan called the Five-Series, don’t you think BMW would not blow their top upon hearing it?
This issue is not about who can name what; it’s about commercial branding.
Err.. Hehehehe, To think that someone in the USA would come to a Ferrari dealership to buy an F150 truck, that would be hilarious. And stupid. The redneck, that is.
no la.. Feng Shui Guru told Ferrari that this year should avoid the court.. if not will bring a year of bad luck. Ferrari is not wrong.
my friend name’s zim.. . i think he’s gonna sue me for having the same name as him.. he is 3 decade older than me…
u are comparing a merc and a bmw which both are OBVIOUSLY a road car. u can’t differentiate between an on the road car and a track dedicated race car can you?
Maybe I can, maybe I can’t. Just by reading the name F-150 without looking at the car, I might have mistaken it for a mispelled F150. Or maybe the first thing on my mind would be that Ferrari has named its racing in honour of Ford’s best-selling vehicle, perhaps.
Let’s be honest, this is not the first case under the law where products from different manufacturers have same or similar name. The law in this matter would give benefit of doubt to those who might think that F150 and F-150 are one and the same thing. If there is a possibility of confusion, dilution of brand or even similarity, it does not matter in which specific category your product belongs to, as long as the product is still the same: in this case, a motor vehicle.
i will back down if i were ferrari, i dont wan sub n carrier surround me. its the big three u know.
Ford now can rank themselves with
Pug; for the middle ‘0’
VW; for the GTi
but above Lotus for efforts on Elan
Don’t understand Ford’s problem with it. Ferrari will not be selling any car called the F150. It’s just their F1 car name which won’t be sold anywhere.
Maybe its to do with revenue from merchandise sales derived from the F1 car branding. If anything any Ferrari association with the F150 truck with adds class to the Ford product :)
haha..u guys are funny..
i guess u wouldnt mind if ford would name one of their models as “ford f430 italia” then huh?
i mean, where’s the exclusiveness in there anymore to the renowned names?
isn’t that really obvious fail for ford F430 italia? sigh..
ferrari has clearly stated when they lauch the car that they name theier newest contender to pay homage to Italian HISTORY. not like they suka-suki put that F150 name..
Luca: “Hey, let’s name this year’s contender F150, just to piss off the Ford guyz forthelulz~”
Stefano: “Yeah yeah, I agree! Let’s do it! Screw Ford!
mature up la dey. -_-
u really dont get wat i’m tryin to say i guess..
sighs..
sorry then :P
ever seen 160/180/200/230/340/500/etc denoting engine capacity on cars
everyone using it maahh
F150 for a truck and a one-off racing car?
wat truck? F150? available in wat country?
hahaa…
Good for Ford..
waitin for Pueg to sue P1 for thei logo. I remember pueg’s logo in 60s or 70s looked very similar to P1. Any1 noticed?
waitin for Peug to sue P1 for their logo. I remember peug’s logo in 60s or 70s looked very similar to P1. Any1 noticed?
not similar at all..but the logo is strikingly similar with singapore lion logo
hurmmm…..Ford never done anything with RS, but then who did it first?Porsche have RS, renault have RS, AUDI also have RS…..in every designation the meaning is not the same.
Ford – Rallye Sport
porsche n audi – RennSport(racing sport)
renault – Renault Sport
so why should dispute over the name that is not very similar when its used in different league?I think Ferrari just want to save resources and also their new name maybe what they first intended.
I believe it is because “F150” is an iconic name, far more than “RS” used in cars. For decades whenever people said “F150”, it’s likely in the US people will think of the big Ford truck.
If Ferrari uses the F-150 name, people (no matter how few in numbers they are) may start to ask “Ford or Ferrari?”, and that alone is brand-damaging already, it’s no longer exclusive.
I have no comment on whether who’s childish and who’s not, business is business I guess, but I haven’t seen Ferrari get worked up over Enzotech that made computer cooling devices…
here in Malaysia we have old Merc lorry with 911 marker, also we have Porsche 911.. :D
U’r rite…the lorry was famous in 80’s & 90’s and the car will be famous forever & i never quite heard anything short of a lawsuit back then…. both are vehicles but built for totally different purpose altogether…
I really don’t get why Ford can get so worked up over the name. The Ferrari F150 is just an F1 car that can be used on tracks, not the road.
oh there is a truck from FORD called f150? I never know.
Apparently Ford is not satisfied…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RNbbDRdvBw&feature=player_embedded
Ford did the right thing to protect the F-150. Its called protecting the exclusiveness of the brand.
It happens before with other auto companies. Ferrari themselves did similar with Volvo for the same reason, and Mercedes with BMW an so on and so forth.
bagi la fakta banyak mana pun, yang nampak bodoh sekarang ialah Ford… macam saje2 je Ford nak enter frame. kan kalau cakap cara dalaman kan senang, nak jugak highlight kat paper, kat court.. F150 Ford bukan terkenal seluruh dunia pun.. nasib baik la Ferrari matured enough drag this much longer..
Damn it, I wanted to buy a truck but now there’s this other vehicle w/ the same name, I’m so confused which one I want. DUH.
Ford is lame. BMW and Mazda didn’t sue each other when they both had “323” back in the 90’s.
Damn funny when companies dispute over naming something….as if people will not be able to differentiate between a F1 car and a truck……
Ford’s argument would have been much more appropriate if Ferrari launch a truck and name it F-150, which I doubt that Ferrari will ever create a truck……Ford’s the fool here……