Monday, March 7, 2011

Ford (F) Settles Ferrari Lawsuit Over F-150 Name

Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) announced they have settled a lawsuit in which the automaker accused Italian automaker Ferrari of infringing its trademark for the popular F-150 truck with the original name of its new Formula One car.

Ford has now dropped the case, according to a filing with the U.S. district court in Detroit, with Ferrari agreeing for a second time to change the name of the race car so it will now be called Ferrari 150 Italia.

When the car for this year's racing season was launched in January, it was nicknamed F150 to celebrate this year's festivities for 150 years of Italian unity.

After Ford first filed the lawsuit on Feb 9, the Italians announced that the full name of the car - Ferrari F150th Italia - would now be used.

Ford, which complained that Ferrari also used a logo that was too close in resemblance to the Ford F-150 - the top-selling vehicle in the United States - was still not satisfied.

Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said the new name "still contained F and 150," and that change "was not acceptable to us."

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