Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Ferrari names new F150, lawsuits ensue, Ford comes out on top.


If you didn't hear about Ferrari's new grand prix racer being names the F150, well you just did. In fact, Ford MoCo happened to hear about it as well and they weren't too pleased about the prancing horse claiming the best selling American pickup ever. Consequently,  Ford decided to take Ferrari to court claiming the "F150" name is theirs and only theirs.

After a few weeks, Ferrari came out with a public statement officially naming the new F1 car the "F150th Italia". Seems like a mouthful; should be interesting to hear those zany British announcers try say that on screen.

Anyway, Ferrari made this additional statement explaining how they don't understand Ferrari at all. 

On the subject of the name of the new Ferrari Formula 1 car, the Maranello company wishes to point out that it has sent a letter of reply to Ford, underlining the fact that the F150 designation (used as the abbreviated version of the complete name, which is Ferrari F150th Italia) never has, nor ever will be used as the name of a commercially available product – indeed there will definitely not be a production run of single-seaters.
In fact, it has always been the case in the history of Scuderia names, that they represent the nomenclature of a racing car project and are linked to a chronological order with a technical basis, or in exceptional cases, to special occasions. This year, the decision was taken to dedicate the car name to a particularly significant event, the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, an event of such great importance that the Italian government has declared, for this year only, a national holiday.
For these reasons, Ferrari believes that its own contender in the forthcoming F1 championship cannot be confused with other types of commercially available vehicle of any sort 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.
Despite this and to further prove it is acting in good faith and that it operates in a completely correct manner, Ferrari has decided to ensure that in all areas of operation, the abbreviated version will be replaced at all times with the full version, Ferrari F150 th Italia.



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