If you are looking to buy a car, please, don't buy a Ford!. Since Ford are stupid enough to think the Ferrari F150 was an attempt to "capitalize on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed in the F-150 trademark", we should all boycott Ford. It's not like Ferrari were going to sell F150's, and who would be stupid to confuse a rubbish pick-up truck with an F1 car? While companies are suing each other for petty reasons: Will Volvo sue Sauber over the "C30" name? Will Bernie sue the original developer of the keyboard for the "F1" key?
I think Top Gear covered this well last week... To be honest, I imagine it was a corporate lawyer somewhere at Ford HQ who went a bit over the top with naming rights. They're not in the same market, so I imagine thats why Volvo didn't have an issue. Also, its only an initial, theres only so many! If they'd come out and called it the Scuderia Ferrari Mondeo, then fair enough. People always seem to sue for petty reasons, sadly its part of modern life, never mind.
Fords are very good cars. Ford registered that name first - if someone googles F150 and it comes up with thousands of Ferrari F1 articles before it gets to them then that's a massive advertising fail isn't it. They had every right to do what they did - Ferrari are a big enough company, they should have done their homework, approached the company lawyers and tried to negotiate a deal. Not just assume they are bigger than everyone and use the name that they had no copywrite on. Sorry but they don't have a leg to stand on (as we know by the legal ruling). And nice one Fred - that's when you get your license and save up the ã3.5k insurance is it? What are you both going to buy instead, a Ferrari??
Lorca, I thought this would be a wum thread, and it didnt disappoint! I used to have a Ford, and it was an awesome car. People should buy cars based on there needs, not some F1 naming rights issue, which ford had EVERY right to sue over when they had a registered trademark on the F150 trademark.
This isn't a wum thread. I was chatting to someone about Ferrari today and I kept having to say "F150th Italia" - which really annoyed me. I am a Ferrari fan and I don't respect Ford over this issue.
Rubbish article,as McWilliams said above,it's all about the google results,Ford quite rightly chose to defend there F-150 naming rights. Quite obvious really.
Lorca I think perhaps you should be annoyed at Ferrari for choosing such a mouthful of a name rather than blame Ford who have done nothing wrong. Ferrari are the ones that have failed here for breaching intellectual property rights. It would have been so simple to have checked this before they named the car. They either didn't check (which is a branding failure) or were arrogant enought to think they'd take it without consulting Ford first. I suspect it's the former.
I'd blame the lawyers who were advising Ferrari and who didn't do their due diligence thoroughly enough when Ferrari prposed the name F150. Have Ferrari considered sueing them?
I've had a Ford before and it was aweful, under powered and bad on MPG. However, I'm sure if Ford brought out a model called the Enzo or 438 then Ferraris lawyers would be quick to call them. It's all about branding and don't forget there is a lot of bad blood between them after Ferrari refused to be bought out by them in the 60's then Ford thrashed them with the GT40 in response.
I think that pretty much sums it up. The Ford F150 is massively popular in America, it would like the new Red Bull being called the RB-Golf, or the New McLaren being the MP-Focus. It may seem pedantic but Ford have to look out for there own marketing.
the reason they got rid of Compo in Last of the Summer Wine was because Bernie threatened to sue them over use of his image ;-)
I don't see why you shouldn't buy a Ford, they have proved over the many years that they can produce very good cars, from fast fuel guzzling supercars to hatchbacks Really, they haven't done anything wrong, it's Ferarri for not looking up whether F150 was a trademark or copyrited
I dont know, the gesture of Ferrari calling it the F150 to celebrate Italy's unification was a nice idea. and its a car that will only be running for one year and also... and this is a big one... its a Formula 1 car. Cant see why Ford got so uperty
I think whoever mentioned search hits was probably right. A quick google of 'F150' still yields a mix on F1 and Ford links, which decreases the presence of the Ford car.
