According to theF1Times.com, Ford filed suit again Ferrari over the use of the “F150” name.
Ferrari’s now has a 2011 car by the same name.
Ford is suing Ferrari over its registration of the ferrariF150.com domain name, which it claims goes against the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and is seeking.$100,000 in damages.
The lawsuit claims Ford has suffered irreparable harm to its F-150 brand and is claiming unspecified damages as well as banning the use of the name on any Ferrari merchandise sold in the U.S.
Of course Ford doesn’t even own the domain name F150.com, which is a parked page under privacy at a Bahamian registrar using HitFarm servers.
Nor does Ford own FordF150.com, which belongs to and used as a Enthusiast site.
Ford doesn’t even own the domain name FordF150.com; that domain appears to be privacy at the same Bahamian registrar which also uses HitFarm servers that owns F150.com
According to the suit Ferrari is given Ford a bad name by using the same F150 that Ford has been using for its truck line.
A Ferrari sports car and a Ford truck.
Yes I can see how that can be very confusing to a consumer.
Looks like another case of an overreaching trademark holder going after a pretty generic term, one in which they seemly failed to protect their “brand”
At least this time the trademark holders are “eating their own”
The Ferrari F150 is their new Formula 1 car – even less confusing (or maybe the sort of person who’d buy a truck couldn’t tell the difference?).
Wow, I’m laid up in bed recovering from the DomainFest Flu (thank you for the kind words, MHB) and want to comment on this. When titans aim for the little guy is one thing, but when they aim their guns at each other you can bet there’s a good chance precedent may be set. Someone at Ford pulled the trigger without doing their homework.
David
Hope you feel better soon
This is going to be a very interesting one to watch.
Gonna add a .com after the F-150 on my truck.
Maybe help dude out with a little parking income!
Memphis Domain Broker
the “150” in the name of the new Ferrari F1, doesn’t refer to a model number, but to the anniversary of the union of the nation, that falls this year
Ford builds trucks, Ford has built the F-150 for a very long time actually, the Ford F-150 is in fact the number one selling truck.
Ergo F-150, with a company the size of Ford, as is their stock and trade have a vested interest to bring this matter forward.
It is just business after all.
Not only is FERRARI_F150 (sexy Italian exotic sports car) in no way confusingly similar to FORD_F150 (workingman’s pickup truck), but there’s a long history of autos using the same name.
Example:
There was a Ferrari Daytona,
a Studebaker Daytona,
and a Dodge Daytona,
all named after the famous race track in Florida,
and no one ever got any of them confused.
whats wrong with being associated with ferrari? It rocks anyway!!
has Ford just started a viral marketing campaign? it may value million$
A lot of you are talking about how it would be impossible for someone to confuse the two, and that’s true enough, but what happens if Ford decides it wants to get into a sponsorship deal with F1, or even field a car and use it to advertise their product line? Then Ferrari is going to claim rights to the name, and Ford damn sure isn’t going to change the name of the F150.
In the corporate world there’s no good reason to not vigorously defend trademarks. You never know what the future will bring.
@ Philip Corwin – “Not only is FERRARI_F150 (sexy Italian exotic sports car) in no way confusingly similar to FORD_F150 (workingman’s pickup truck), but there’s a long history of autos using the same name.
Example:
There was a Ferrari Daytona,
a Studebaker Daytona,
and a Dodge Daytona,
all named after the famous race track in Florida,
and no one ever got any of them confused.”
At risk of sounding like a nerd, the Ferrari ‘Daytona’ was never officially called that. The model’s official name was 365GTB/4 – the rarer convertible being 365GTS/4.
Ok so you have a widget that you spent all your savings on and named it X, put it on the net and it starts selling. You trademark the name and it becomes household. Then, a bloated arrogant, albeit an overachiever, comes along and names their thingy-do X, puts it on the web and snubs their nose at you. What would you do?
You have to realize theres more than just “its a truck and a race car” going on here. Theres advertising dollars, web issues and lets not forget the history between these giants. (Ferraris ass is mine = GT40)
this sue against Ferrari can be reasonable only if Ford plans to enter the Formula 1 races … with a truck …
Can anyone tell me where the hell can i buy that Ferrari F150? Dammmmn! That Ferrari F150 would look good with my trailer… I got screwed, big time! Can i hire Fernando Alonso as my personal driver as well?
Jeff – is Ford going after F150.com?
No.
FordF150.com?
No.
Why go after FerrariF150.com – publicity perhaps?
“publicity perhaps?”
yes, as said, it’s only viral marketing!
From Ford:
“Ferrari has misappropriated the F-150 trademark in naming its new racing vehicle the F150 in order to capitalize on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed in the F-150 trademark,” said Ford in its complaint to the US District Court in Detroit.
From Ferrari:
“[F150] never has, nor ever will be used as the name of a commercially available (Ferari) product – indeed there will definitely not be a production run of single-seaters.”
As for “going after” the other sites, Google them, they are dead. They actually refer you back to Ford F150 truck information……next.
Jeff – you don’t understand this stuff, do you. Those two sites are directly profiting from the reputation of the F150 truck – they’re not doing Ford a favour. Hence, why aren’t Ford going after those, but instead they’re going after ferrarif150.com which evidently has nothing to do with the Ford product.
That enough ‘next’ for you?
This makes perfect sense.
Ford couldn’t care less about keyword domains- for better, for worse, Ford.com is good enough for them. What they *do* care about is when someone in their same channel of commerce employs one of their trade names.
The fact that Ferarri is a sports car and the F150 is a pickup isn’t an adequate distinction. Do you think Microsoft could release the IPAD smartphone? Or that McDonalds can name their new fish sandwich the Whopper?
I hope Ford wins… and I *love* the Diesel F250 XLT 4x4s…
LS Morgan, unlike the F40, F50, F430, the Ferrari F150 is not a commercial product.
What could Ferrari possibly gain from having an association with a pick-up truck? Seems like all Ford really want is to force an association with the sexy Italian – why else would they kick up a fuss but ignore names that are directly trading off their TM?
“…and I *love* the Diesel F250 XLT 4x4s”
Does that come with a rack for your banjo?
Hahahaha, check out http://www.ferrarif150thitalia.com!
People, when you argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. Its not worth making obvious intelligent statements to try and get this guy to understand.
By the way, Ferrari changed it up as Im sure they realized it would be a losing fight.
No banjos pal, F150 is a class act.
Jeff – can you point out the intelligence in this statement because I’ve been through it and dang if I can locate any.
“As for “going after” the other sites, Google them, they are dead. They actually refer you back to Ford F150 truck information……next.”
Better yet, should we analyse it together?
You say, “Google them” – why not just type them in?
You say, “They refer you back to Ford F150 truck information…” – as though they are providing a service to Ford, and not profiteering from Fords TM.
Then you typed, “next” – I’m guessing that was just a mistake – were you making that post while serving at the drive through hatch?
The Ferrari F150 or technically the F150th Italia and its web site are not intented for commercial purposes, the single-seater car will never be commercially available. The car is solely made for FORMULA1 and in F1 World, Ford doesnt exist anymore… The last time they were in F1 (thru JaguarGP), they were very consistent with being a BACK-MARKER… What goodwill are they talking about? Ford F1-50 vs Ferrari F150? A commercial truck vs a purely race car which will never be allowed to run in public roads? C’mon!!! I wonder if there will be a Fantastic FOUR vs IPhone4 case oneday… Pathetic!