Ferrari sued by Ford for using the name F-150 for their 2011 car – Formula 1 news
According to some reports, it has been confirmed that Ford Motor Company has sued Ferrari’s Formula 1 team for ‘trademark infringement’ this Wednesday for using the name F150 for their new car.
The logo designed by Ferrari for their new car strikingly resembles the one Ford made for one of its pickup trucks which is called F-150 as well. Ford’s F-150 is the top selling vehicle in the United States and there is no chance that Ferrari did not know
about this.
“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,” Ford said in a complaint filed in U.S. District
Court in Detroit.
Ford has asked the court to forbid Ferrari from using F150 as their new car’s name even though Team Ferrari claims that they did not intent to copy the name as they had their own reasons for using this name.
“The choice of name stems from Ferrari's desire to pay tribute to this year's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy,” Ferrari told the media.
Nevertheless, both of the companies have not revealed anything officially yet but it is believed that they will soon clear this matter themselves soon.
Ferrari launched its new car on January 28, 2011 and became the first top running team to launch its 2011 Formula 1 car. The team revealed it in Maranello and it seems that the team is satisfied with their new car.
The team was unable to give a good overall performance in 2010 as Felipe Massa was unable to back Fernando Alonso almost throughout the season. Felipe finished in 6th place way behind the title contenders while Fernando Alonso finished
in 2nd place in the drivers’ standings just 4 points behind the 2010 Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari is aiming for nothing less than the championship this time and it is definitely going to be interesting to see how the team performs at the upcoming pre-season test session in Jerez.
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