Ferrari to call car ‘F150th Italia’ after Ford complaint

2011 F1 season

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Ferrari have changed the name of their 2011 F1 car on their website.

The car previously referred to as the F150 is now called the F150th Italia throughout the team’s website.

Ferrari have not officially announced the change. However it is still possible to see the original F150 designation in the cached version of the site on Google.

The move follows a legal threat by Ford, manufacturers of the F-150 pickup truck.

Update: Ferrari has issued a statement on the renaming of its car:

“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 F150th Italia.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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194 comments on “Ferrari to call car ‘F150th Italia’ after Ford complaint”

  1. The Ferrari 1/50th Italy, means Ferrari is only 2% of Italy? Or is it worth 2 pence!
    Pretty modest, for a change.

    1. Lol Nice BasCB, Gave me a chuckle today

      1. Ford does not play games.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RNbbDRdvBw&feature=player_embedded

        First they took it to the streets and then they take it to the court.

    2. I’m so tempted to post a reply that starts with “I completely disagree with you.”

      1. Right on the lines of “I completely disagree with you, it is worth at least 150 EUR or a full 20% off Italy” or something

    3. Pff….thats a pretty useless comment, just shows how much Ferrari are feared even this year!

  2. I saw the Ford sues Ferrari over F150 name on their forum, and I thought it was a joke one to be honest.

    It is so petty from Ford, but Ferrari should have expected the bitterness that still goes between the two car companies gbecause of the fact Enzo pulled out of selling Ferrari to Ford in the 1960s.

    For anyone who doesn’t know what happened nexr, Ford commisioned the GT40 in order to obliterate Ferrai at LeMan. Was it a success? Well, the GT 40 won the next 5 LeMan or something similar. ;)

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      10th February 2011, 14:18

      It’s not really Ford being petty. Infringement of copyright works like that. If Ford had not objected strongly and allowed Ferrari to get away with it, it could have been used as a precedent by another vehicle manufacturer to produce a truck also called the F-150 and claim the right to use the name because Ford did not contest Ferrari’s prior use of the name.
      It’s just the way copyright works.

      1. Yeah, I see the confusion. You walk into a dealership to buy a truck but walk off with a non road legal Formula 1 car that will never be on sale,wondering why they charged you $7million. Thank god for copyright. I feel safe now.

        If Ferrari tried to sell a truck call the f-150 then the case would have merit. This is just nonsense.

        1. Totally agree here. It’s not like the Ferrari F1 car will be sold to general public.

          But also the claim it was always intended as an abbreviation don’t fly with me. Then why did all website and news releases have the abbreviated name in it and now all a sudden have the full name? The “full” name was never breathed until the lawsuit. Just don’t buy that one at all. Just more smoke and mirrors from Ferrari (who would have guessed)

          1. yeah but all the merch could have F-150 all over it and ferrari badges instead of ford ones. People could be walking all over america wearing it, and associating F-150 with ferrari instead of ford.

          2. @Mike-e
            Why would the merch say f150 on it? At most it’ll have a picture of the car, why would it have the name?

            Can’t say I’ve seen any racing shirt with the name of a car on (except a few that are supposed to be tributes to classics)

          3. I know for a fact Mclaren sell Team caps with MP4-25 on them, and plan to release MP4-26 hats for the new season – if Ferrari do this with F150 it would be for commercial gain – then Ford would be able to complain – but I’m calling my dog F150 and Ford aren’t making me change!!!

          4. But also the claim it was always intended as an abbreviation don’t fly with me. Then why did all website and news releases have the abbreviated name in it and now all a sudden have the full name? The “full” name was never breathed until the lawsuit. Just don’t buy that one at all. Just more smoke and mirrors from Ferrari (who would have guessed)

            Absolutely. Out and out lies. Of course it wasn’t called the F150th Italia, until the lawsuit was filed. It really does seem like Ferrari had no clue of the F-150’s existence, not that that’s surprising. Still… total BS that they decided they would use the “full name” to avoid confusion. Then why wasn’t the url: http://www.ferrari150thitalia.com? Which incidentally looks like it’s available. Anyone wanna buy that domain? Ford?

          5. Would not think Ferrari not to understand, just as with all these things, it was not about what they thought or did, just about what they want us to believe.

            I bet Ferrari knew and was doing this on purpose. Why else are the graphics of the F150 logo so close to Fords F-150 (same style of font, proportions etc.).

            They probaly were planning on bringing out the T-shirts and caps.
            Then in a year, when Chrystler starts bringing the AlfaRomeo SUV onto the market they have weakened Fords brand and will have a better chance to get close(ish) to them in sales.

        2. Couldn´t agree with you more, they are different “products”… no one is going to watch F1 because they think that a Ferrari F150 is in reality a Ford F-150, nor would anyone buy a Ferrari baseball cap beacause they think it represents a Ford F-150. But hey, what can you expect from law-suit-happy land…

        3. lol so true so true!
          Ford is desperate for attention since they suck now a days.

        4. Ford tried to Sue Granada TV in the 1970’s when they launched the Granada saloon.

          Car or TV Station, let me think?????

          1. @ Trocadero

            That’s a very poor fabrication. Ford have never tried to sue Granada TV, ever.

            For starters Granada TV was an evolution of Granada Theatres Ltd. (which was set up in the 1930’s). Granada TV went live in 1956 and Ford released the first Granada in 1972.
            Why would Ford consider a lawsuit after the name had already been used by an unrelated company for 16 years (or longer when the parent company is considered.)

            Anyway – back on-topic:

        5. Agreed.

        6. haha, nice one timokin

      2. HounslowBusGarage (awesome name by the way – haha) is 100% right. It isn’t Ford being petty, it’s a legal requirement for Ford to actively protect their trademark. The truth is they are both cars, maybe different types but that doesn’t matter.

        Ford weren’t trying to be jerks to Ferrari, they were protecting themselves for a company in the future using the F150 name and using the fact Ford let Ferrari use the name with contesting it as evidence the trademark is null and void. Which does happen.

        I see this happen all the time in the games industry.

        Ford aren’t “trolling the trademark” either as they actively use it.

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          10th February 2011, 20:14

          Thanks Griggs.

          Ford weren’t trying to be jerks to Ferrari, they were protecting themselves for a company in the future using the F150 name and using the fact Ford let Ferrari use the name with contesting it as evidence the trademark is null and void. Which does happen.

          The most famous case of course, is Hoover. The company did not take steps to protect the use of the word as an alternative to vacuum cleaner and was subsequently unable to copyright their own name because it had passed into ‘common parlance’.
          Here endeth the lesson.

      3. But legally, Ford don’t really have a case – there is a considerable difference between a pick-up truck and an F1 car. Ford’s trademark will have specifically been for a pick-up tuck rather than all motor vehicles, hence meaning Ferrari’s first choice would not have infringed the trademark.

        I suspect Ferrari only acquiesced to avoid a potentially costly (but needless, and ultimately fruitless) lawsuit from Ford.

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          10th February 2011, 21:19

          No. It’s for Class 12; Motor Vehicles, regardless of off-road, on-road, two or four wheels.

      4. Infringement is infringement I suppose. It does seem petty however your intellectual property is an asset that you own. From a business perspective If I was ford I would have done the same thing.

        I think Ford has more to gain from being associated with a high tech race car than Ferrari has to gain being associated with a truck that while popular is an engineering dead end. What I can’t understand is why they had to go and make such a stupid name. Why didn’t they just change it to roman numerals and call it an F-CL

        1. And then have Mercedes pushing them to change it for being like their pretty well known, high-performance Mercedes CL models?

          Not a good Idea.

      5. @HounslowBusGarage,

        This is not how copyright works… I can make a pencil and call it the F-150, or a bicycle called the 458 red single seater etc etc and I will be within my legal rights to do so as i am making something with a similar name, BUT that does not compete directly and/in the same field as Ford or Ferrari. Only, in rare instances, if I were explicitly making profits by giving appearance to a link between my pencil and the Ford name, or bicycle with Ferrari, would I then be liable for any damages.

        That said, as others have said, a non-commercially available, single-seat, front and rear winged, only comes in red, never to be found in nascar, only on closed course, beautiful racing machine IS NOT EVEN CLOSE to a big boring 4wd (optional) american truck… in fact the F150 Italia would never even see American soil!

        I hate to say it, but I hope Ford fails this year for being such ignorant arrogant americans.

      6. Copyright of What???? One is a F1 racing car with illustrious history and the other one… MOFO pick up truck as unreliable as any american product!!!
        I mean, how demented is Ford management to bring such a lawsuit as this one?
        Gosh, I had great respect for the this great country, USA, but now… I just shake my head.
        The name was to last for a racing year and that’s it!!

      7. Not only would it create a precedent that could start in motion a condition in which Ford would lose their copyright of “F-150”, it could set a stage where a direct competitor in their core US market could use the F-150 name. Keep in mind that Fiat not only has an ownership stake in Ferrari, it now has a controlling ownership interest in Chrysler. A future “high performance” version of a Dodge pickup could end up being called the “F-150” on the grounds that its not referring to the Ford truck its referring to the race car of its corporate sibling.

  3. hahahahahahhahahah this is turning out to be such a joke

    1. HounslowBusGarage
      10th February 2011, 20:31

      HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
      I’ve just found the biggest joke of all. I thought I’d see if anyone had actually bothered to file a trade mark in the EU for F-150 . . . so I went to the Intellectual Property Office and lo and behold that on 01 Feb 2011, the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Michigan, USA filed applications in Class 12 (Motor Vehicles)to cover the UK and the whole of Europe.
      Previously, they only had trademark in Germany. In the US, it’s trademarked in every way of course. But over here, the lazy sods only bothered to trademark it to Germany!
      Of course, Ferrari should have bothered to do a Europe-wide search which would have revealed the German registration (and alerted them to the US registrations), but that’s another story.

      1. Surely F-150 and F150 are different things?

        I’m not saying I can now make a rear engined sports car and call it the 9-11, that would be silly, but the hyphen makes all the difference!

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          10th February 2011, 22:06

          Not sure that any registration authorities accept punctuation marks as registerable marks. They are all tending to go with the way things sound however they are spelled, so unless you can claim a unique sound for a hyphen . . .
          I’ve recently tried to register a name including the figure 4 as opposed to the spelled out version “f o r” but the IPO now take into account ‘text’ language and so it was refused.

          1. Gah!!! Ferrari missed a trick! :)

          2. Probably because they are a one trick pony!! Ooooooooooo :)

      2. There goes the argument of the F1 car never getting into the US. By now I am pretty convinced, that Ferrari/Fiat named this specifically as they were awaiting a future use of this brand by Ford worldwide and want to take precautions by lessening the brand.

        If Ford would launch a car with the F-150 brand in Europe, Fiat would be able to counter that.

  4. That is a rubbish name. Why are they so stubborn about including the reference to Italy?? I know politics in Italy are messed up but surely the Italian people aren’t going to elect Montezemelo just because he’s gone all patriotic?…

    1. Why not name it just I(taly) 150, if Monti is so keen on the politics?

      1. yea, or 150F? 150th is weird. It’s time for Ford to let it go, it’s been 50 years. However, I was glad to see that Ferrari wasn’t fighting it, it’s not worth it.

        Do you guys have Ford F-150 trucks in Europe, I don’t recall ever seeing one there. They’re everywhere here in the states, actually they are great trucks, if you need a truck.

        1. I think they tried to sell them for a while but they couldn’t shift ’em. Pickups aren’t popular over here, and if people are planning on getting one they’ll usually go for a hilux

        2. Fprd will sue HRT if the team lasts another 49 seasons and makes an F150.

          1. You mean 39 seasons mate! Haha

      2. Hold on… If Ferrari named it the i150, they would be sued by Apple.

    2. Since they named it F150, they have to keep a relation between the two names, to identify the two cars as the same one.
      But this name is horribile, at least remove the ‘th’ from 150. This is a mess, it’s too late to rename a car, they should have thought of that before.

      1. That’s gotta be one of the most awkward names for an F1 car. They should’ve just polled the fans!

        1. That would have required some time, and Ferrari wanted to end this as soon as possible.

    3. I hope they do – with Berlusconi looking more and more likely to either have to escape to South America or end up in prison the world needs another crazy leader to entertain them in these troubling times.

      Imagine what the Horse Whisperer would have to say about other countries, not just soft drink manufacturers!

    4. I agree Ned. Can we all agree just to call it the Italia? That’s what I’d have done if I were Ferrari, it has a much nicer sound to it and that helps link it to their 458 road car.

      To expound upon this thought, wouldn’t it be neat if F1 cars actually had proper names? What do you guys think?

      1. To expound upon this thought, wouldn’t it be neat if F1 cars actually had proper names? What do you guys think?

        It’s come up before. The problem with giving F1 cars proper names is that you need a new one every year. Plus, all these cars are “prototypes” since teams usually make less than 10 a year. I don’t think anybody gives a prototype a proper name.

      2. Kate is a proper name, though it is only for a chassis. And dont forget her dirty sister or Mandy.

  5. I suppose they will next be announcing in a by the way matter, that it was always ment to be said like that.

    1. Now that announcement has already come! Wonderfull creative thinking Ferrari. As if someone buys that.

      Still should have just picked something else as a name. They would hardly have enjoyed being mistaken for a truck in the US.

      1. I suppose it might just be credible enough that they can get their lawyers to claim it and make ford stop going to court to keep a record of having defended their trademark. A bit silly, but the issue doesn’t deserve much more :)

    2. 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 F150th Italia.

      Ridiculous. I am a Ferrari fan, but I don’t like this attitude of regarding everyone as stupid. No, F150 wasn’t short for F150th Italia, it is just a reason to tell the world they were right in the first place, whilst they weren’t.

      1. And they are wondering why quite a lot of fans don’t like the way they tick.
        This is pathetic, isn’t it, why not just tell the world they wanted to do something nice for Italy, but never thought about a truck, as it is so far from their scope. Then name it something sensible.
        Now that would have been a gutsy move.

        The only part of that message I like is them quoting, that there are certainly no plans for sale of the model.

        1. As usual, Ferrari’s pride comes before any sort of logic or sense.

          It would have been so, so easy to turn this around, rename the car, avoid the lawsuit, and massively take the pee out of Ford at the same time.

          Instead, Ferrari manage to turn themselves from blameless victims of po-faced corporate behemothism into bungling, toungue-tied, red-faced idiots.

          1. HounslowBusGarage
            10th February 2011, 21:21

            Mega Lol!

          2. Exactly!

      2. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. When I was a kid, that attitude was considered a bad thing…. I got it knocked out of me :)

  6. And i look forward to celebrating my GT40th birthday

    1. hahahahaha, nice one

    2. It’s my MP4-25th soon, let’s hope it’s not an omen!

      1. LOL, like this sequence of posts. I already had my C30th and FW33rd, shame really.

  7. Honestly, the only similarity between the Ford F150 and the Ferrari F1 is the fantastic gas mileage both vehicles offer!!!

    1. well… you say that.

      We will find out in Barhain if it has anything else in common with a Ford pick-up…..hahaha

      1. both the ferrari and the ford have old fashioned rear suspension

  8. I always prefer road cars with Names over Numbers. Gimme a ‘Zonda’ over a ‘911’ any day.

    I wish more F1 teams would ‘name’ their cars, rather than ‘number’ them

    1. I hear next year one of the teams will call their car Mary…

      1. Probably Seb Vettel’s RB8

          1. Ho hoooooooo drum roll please! :)

  9. F150th? Why not just F150-I or something else? the “th” is not even Italian…

    1. Haha, never thought of it like that. All this talk about Italy and Italia…I guess Roman numerals would have been the best. Didn’t they call that other Ferrari the FX, and then the one Schumacher drove on Top Gear the FXX

      1. The XX designation is for the track-day specials. Ferrari also made a 599XX after the FXX.

    2. I always read F150 as “effe centocinquanta”, but now? “Effe centocinquantaTH”? No! Now I have to call it “F one hundred and fiftieth Italia”. Mix of English and Italian. Bleah.

      1. yes, now it’s unpronounceable!
        now i’m just curious to hear how Italian journalists and commentators will call it…

      2. HounslowBusGarage
        10th February 2011, 20:35

        Lol much!

  10. Why didn’t they call it the 150F?

    1. Their cars catch fire as it is, calling it that is just tempting fate :)

  11. According to the ESPNF1 article, Ford says:

    “Ferrari has misappropriated the F-150 trademark … in order to capitalise on and profit from the substantial goodwill that Ford has developed”

    I understand that the copyright stuff is “serious business” and that Ford is keen to protect one of its most successful brand names, but to claim that a Ferrari racing car wants to “capitalise on and profit from” a Ford truck is downright hilarious!
    I suspect that Ferrari couldn’t care less about anything Ford…

    1. to claim that a Ferrari racing car wants to “capitalise on and profit from” a Ford truck is downright hilarious!

      Agree!

      I suspect that Ferrari couldn’t care less about anything Ford…

      They changed name immediately, not even responding or trying to prove their reasons, so yes.

    2. it is reported that since 1997 the “F-150” trademark has brought over 180 billion dollars to Ford. now i understand the reason why Ford are so afraid of a “Ferrari F150”.

    3. It’s boilerplate that’s required in this case. They MUST go after brand name similarities, even if it’s absurd. It is REQUIRED, OR THEY WILL LOSE THE RIGHTS TO THE BRAND. It doesn’t matter that it’s baseless; they are REQUIRED TO DO IT because of the way copyright law works.

      Is this so difficult to understand?!

      1. But it isn’t really true – you do not have to go to ridiculous length to crush anything that could be construed as infringing on the trademark, it just has to be clear that in the selling of consumer cars, F-150 is a certain ford truck.

        Since this is about a very limited prototype open seater race car without any intention in sight of it ever being sold, let alone in numbers – Ferrari prefers to loan out it’s previous F1 cars in their own events where they fully control how, where, and by who they are run – it would make anyone trying to use it to defend actually infringing on a ford trademark probably punished with contempt of court.

        1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
          10th February 2011, 18:22

          Have you seen some of the stupid lawsuits that happen in America, I can guarantee if Ford hadn’t gone after it another car company would have tried to exploit it and used this basis for their argument.

        2. Yes, you do.

        3. HounslowBusGarage
          10th February 2011, 20:43

          Not quite true, Bosyber.
          All motor vehicles are covered by Class 12, and there is no division or classification within that to distinguish from road-legal to track-only.

      2. It’s not a question of understanding – perhaps more one of questioning whether copyright laws should be that powerful and, if what you say is accurate, that binding. Let’s not forget that legal systems are constructed, not somehow given. Just because they are a certain way doesn’t mean they should be. There’s certainly no harm in questioning how they work, especially in cases that wouldn’t come up if corporate teams of lawyers didn’t exist. Well, and that whole globalisation thing, too. Anyhoo, I think that both the companies acted just plain stoopid. Ford for threatening to sue and then Ferrari’s choice of replacement name – oy!

  12. 150th Italia??? it’s a silly name. i guess even in italian it doesn’t sound exotic at all

  13. Hmmm

    My Italian isn’t that good, but shouldn’t it be F150isimo Italia?

    1. in Italian is ‘centocinquantesimo’ and as an ordinal number it is usually F150°. Alternatives could be F150o or (but it is rare) F150mo.

      1. Now that sounds a lot better make it the
        F150°, on a website it would have to be F150o

        1. Ferrari 150 Farhenheit, I like it! Very hot. It also looks better I think.

          1. Now that is a great name.

    2. F150esimo Italia would be very poor for a name, becuase it makes it look as if it’s the letter F that is celebrating its 150 years!
      To be called like that it would have to contain the word Anniversary, F150esimi Anniversario Italia, but that would suck even more. F150° Italia is fine, or F150th Italy, but I always liked names such as F2008, that can be read in every language (Italian: effe duemilaotto, English: F two thousand and eight).

      1. Then they could just name it the “Ferrari Italia 150°” That would be OK for a name I suppose.

        1. You mean the Ferrari “Italia F150°” or Ferrari “F Italia 150°”? The second is horrible, but they tend to repeat the name Ferrari in the vehicle name, so the F2008 stood for Ferrari 2008 (I guess, but it was called Ferrari F2008, meaning it was Ferrari Ferrari 2008?).

          1. the extra F is for farce

  14. What a relief!
    I was worried about not being able to tell the difference between a Ferrari F1 car and a pickup truck.

    1. Right, so the F150 is that red single seater and the F150th Italia is the pickup truck. No??

  15. I thought Ford named their truck “F-150”, can’t Ferrari named it “F150”? Will that make a difference?

    Or how about 150F?

    1. Ferrari tend to put the F before the number (F310, F2008, F60, F10..), so putting it at the end would be a great difference for them. But maybe calling it F150-I (the 2003 car was called F2003-GA (Gianni Agnelli)) could have been a better solution. But this way they couldn’t have said that F150 was an abbreviation of the full name.

      1. But they didn’t need to, the fact they did is a bit condescending really. Or perhaps something lost in translation, i.e. “original” = “original meaning”?

        In any case they could have called it F2011 Italia150, as you say there there is present for such a designation!

  16. So what about the website name, or are they getting http://www.ferrarif150thitalia.com ?

    1. get it quick, it is still to free! Just shows how much they are talking gibberish, if the name had really been ment like that, they would have claimed that url for themselves beforehand.

  17. I wonder why BMW didn’t sue them for calling last year’s car F10, like the current 5-series range.

    I wonder what 2012’s Ferrari will be called. A-Class perhaps?

    1. Cortina hopefully

    2. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      10th February 2011, 18:36

      Because that is an in house generation code, not the actual model.

      So, its not the F10M5, its just the M5 from the F10 generation

      1. I was being sarcastic.
        I find this ridicolous.

  18. I see that they’ve changed the text on the web site, but the domain remains the same :-)

    Reminds me a little of when the new Triumph motorcycle company was sued by the Triumph lingerie company because of the potential for confusion caused by having the same name. Now there was a storm in a D-cup ;-)

  19. Ferrari F-CL where C=100 & L=50 … doesn’t really work

    Ferrari F-CC where C=cento (100) & C=cinquanta (50) … doesn’t really work

    Ferrari F1-150 … that would work, mightly better than F150th DOH!!

    1. certainly F-CC would make Peugeot angry, since CC is the suffix of their “Coupé Cabriolet” versions… :)

      1. Volkswagen made a Passat CC which was neither a Coupe or a Cabriolet (it was a 4 door hardtop).

        Personally I think F-CC works better than F150th Italia (ugh!)

        1. To be honest, it was ment as a “coupe” although with 4 doors, following on the succes of that Mercedes 4 door “coupe” the CL!

          I suppose that explains why using CC or CL in the name would not be the best of ideas.

  20. they should have named it E150 or Y150, and should have added a tag line ‘get the F out’

    1. *snorts energy drink through nose*

  21. Well, that’s it. Due to this ridiculous dispute I will not be buying a Ford F150.

    Or a Ferrari.

  22. Ford called Focus one of his cars (equals than a german magazine), so they can copy but can’t be copied ?

    1. That’s because it’s a completely different product.
      Now if they had put out a company magazine named Ford Focus, that would have been a completely different story.

  23. BTW I’ve decided to call the new Ferrari – i150 ‘get the ‘F’ out. don’t really like their new name much!

  24. How about a retaliatory name to tell Ford how they feel FO. or just the 150.

    As more and more things get copywrited, aren’t we going to eventually run out of short names? It’ll be a real mess in fifty – sixty years.

  25. Wow. I guess Ford weren’t taking any prisoners here. F one-fifthtieth-italia is a bit of a mouthful though.

    1. It’s a stupid name, plain and simple. The whole marketing department should be fired. Do they even use a ‘th’ as a numerical suffix in Italian?

  26. Didn’t this happen before with the Jordan 911 aka the 191?

  27. “so here comes Alonso in his ‘ef-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-italia’ ”

    Sorry but it sounds stupid.

    1. Precisely. I think commentators, especially Italian ones, will call it still F150, because in Italian “effe centocinquantaTH” is unpronouncable and would require commentators to say it in English (with their not-so-good pronounce).

      1. ahah, they weren’t even able to pronounce “F-Duct” correctly (it became F-Duck!)… :D

      2. It will be called “la Ferrari” :)

  28. They could name it the FF 150. The first part a short version of a lovely message to Ford and then still keep the 150. :P

    I know Ford have the right to do this but it just seems pointless when all Ferrari were trying to do was celebrate a historic date for their country (politically motivated for Luca of course). Ford and Ferrari road cars barely compete anyway nevermind trucks vs single seaters. :S

    1. Particularly since Ferrari’s use of the name is not in connection with a commercial product. The only way I could see Ford having a problem is the spin-off products (models and souvenirs) that would have ‘F150’ on them.

      But I still say: Bahahahahahahaha!!!

  29. For God’s sake…

    Keith, could you PLEASE add a bit on the end of the article noting that motions like this are legally required in order for Ford to avoid losing the brand?

    Any possible infringements, no matter how absurd in merit, MUST BE FOUGHT, or it is assumed – rightly or wrongly – that the infringee doesn’t care.

    Ford’s nasty wording is boilerplate, nothing more. Probably nobody at Ford itself even cares – or had anything to do with it. Their lawyers saw the thing and fired off an email.

    Honestly, it was kind of absurd of Ferrari to pick that name in the first place – it was dead obvious that Ford would take issue with it for just the reasons above, and it’s a horrible name if you don’t want your car equated with a truck. I seem to recall Ferrari being upset when a driver made that insinuation…

    Really – do they want people searching for images of their car to get 20 pages of pickup trucks?

    Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. The point is that nobody at Ford is going, “OMG they’ll ruin our business!” It’s something they’re legally obliged to do in order to retain their brand.

    It would save a lot of useless and misinformed “Hurr hurr Ford’s so dumb” comments if that were post-scripted on the end of the article…

    1. Honestly, it was kind of absurd of Ferrari to pick that name in the first place

      Yes because Ferraris are always unique, but after the launch I typed F150 in Google and found only Fords. If I type F2008, I get one only car.

    2. Keith, could you PLEASE add a bit on the end of the article noting that motions like this are legally required in order for Ford to avoid losing the brand?

      Everyone knows they are, but some still argue it’s nearly childish of them to do so. I am not blaming Ford, I respect the brand and their rights.

      1. But it isn’t childish – that’s my point. It’s required if they want to retain rights to their brand. Ford’s shareholders would probably take a dim view of their risking their most valuable brand asset because they might look childish.

        1. HounslowBusGarage
          10th February 2011, 20:50

          Ditto.
          But Ford already look foolish because they didn’t bother filing an EU-wide trade mark application until 1st Feb this year.

          1. I bet that was to do with Ferrari launching the F150 at the time!

    3. Idiotic decisions are made all the time. and Ferrari is certainly not exempt.

      In Canadian politics, a pre-cursor to the current governing Conservative Party was for a short time named (in all seriousness) the Canadian Reform Alliance Party (CRAP).

  30. Who would want to name their prestigious F1 car after a mass market truck?

    For a product that is none commercial, matter of fact it’s not even a product. The model names of these F1 cars are hardly even mentioned except only in comparison with previous versions. So I saw it as just a means of Ford to draw attention to itself. To even claim that the car is shaped similar to their, when in fact all F1 cars are shaped this way, is just ludicrous.

    Copyright or not, the way Americans go about copyrights and patents lends itself more to mobsters and turf warfare, than it does to standard business ethics.

    This has to be the joke of he century.

    1. Amen to that.

      I believe my Mondeo will be my last Ford ever.

  31. Funny name.

  32. In Sweden we call their car F-ittalia.

  33. This is easily the funniest F1 story in a long time. A collision between the ultra tight sphincters of Ford’s legal department and Ferrari management squeezing important decisions between espresso & biscotti breaks.

    Monti’s gotta go…

  34. is this the dumb truck that Clarkson tested on topgear? 0-60 in 4 seconds but has a step ladder for a chassis and disc brakes the size of a sixpence? If so surely the copyright issues only last 50 years and will be as out of date as the stoopid van/thing

  35. OMG!

    “Ferrari F150th Italia” is the original name, “F150” the abbreviation.
    Patent troll is really something I can stand.

    so…

    Sauber C30 = Volvo C30 ?
    Renault R31 = Nissan Skyline R31 ?

      1. Lotus T128 = Tatra T-128 ?

        LOL

    1. People who can’t understand the difference between patent, copyright, and trademark are really something I can’t stand.

      1. -.-
        You should stand… because trademark troll is no far better than patent troll.

        1. This is why I only support Copyleft.. but unfortunately you don’t know what it is.

  36. They can call the car by whatever name they want publically, but the chassis is and will always remain a F150 and should be referred to as such.

  37. I would have gone with F-Italia150

  38. i knew this would happen! my first post on the ferrari lauch said just this would happen

  39. Did anyone see the car referred to as Ferrari F150th Italia before Ford started legal proceedings? Surely the abbreviation should have been something like F150I.

    I don’t pretend to know much about the legal details of the case, but I recall reading about another case, not linked to the motor industry at all, that a company has to protect it’s trademark all the time as if they don’t bother just once then it sets a precedent.

    If that is the case then I can defiantly understand Ford’s attitude.

    1. Ferrari invented an excuse and immediately changed name to prevent paying the fines.

      1. No no no no! You’re wrong Fixy..

        .. That’s like saying that Ferrari didn’t use team orders!

        Ferrari changing the story after the fact? Not at all!

        ;)

        What would f1 be like without Ferraris Foot-In-Mouth disease I don’t know!

        1. Correction : like saying Ferrari DID use team orders….

          It’s getting confusing to know what Ferrari mean when they say something these days..

  40. What’s a “thitalia”?

    Should we now expect another lawsuit from the Cisitalia club of Spain? ;)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisitalia

  41. I believe I called the use of “Italia” this morning ;-)

    Don’t understand the use of the ordinal, though.

    1. F150 Italia still contains the word F150. F150th has two more letters.

      1. Yeah, follows the age old naming convention just like last years car. The Ferrari F10th. :)

  42. Nice statement from Ferrari. I like the bit about single-seaters not being commercially available and milking it with the unification bit.

    Good on them for at least acknowledging they don’t agree with Ford or understand their reasons.

  43. I didn’t even know Ford made some truck by the same name…nice publicity I think!

  44. Good to see the love between Ford and Ferrari haven’t left yet…

  45. I think what I will miss most is being able to joke about how Alonso drives a truck :(

  46. Would have been a perfect occasion to finally leave, even for a single season, the F nomenclature.

    1. Damn, good F1Fanatic html parsing :D

      I meant F[number] nomenclature.

  47. Why not F1-50?

    1. Because 150 is the key element to the name :)

      I think the th is Alonsos contribution, th th th th th? Valethia?

      Bit shallow I know, but makes sense in my head :)

    2. They would have to do a F1-150 Italia?

  48. I’d have liked to have seen it as the Ferrari Italia 150 Speciale.

    Seems easy to me to see why Ford went after it though.

    1. I would loved to have seen the Ferrari F150 twin cab! with air conditioning and coffee cup holders,,,, damn, I would buy that!!

      1. The Ferrari Hawaii One-Five-O. Special pineapple paintjob with Bernie catching up to Schumi, shouting to race control “Book him Charlie.!

  49. a joke. the united states is the land of the law suit. i mean vafter all many people around the world will know of the exitence of the f150. which is a ugly truck made for red necks who think they have the best cars in the worls,when in fact tohse car are unreliable,and waste alot of gas.
    i mean how canford beeven compared toferrari,i’m pretty sure ferrari didn’t knowabout the existeneof that ruck

    1. Juan, a fact most non-Americans don’t know, and even most Americans would not believe, is that the Ford F150 pickup truck is actually Ford’s best-selling vehicle and perenially the highest selling consumer vehicle sold in the United States, of any type. Thus, this is a very important property for Ford, So you can see why they watch the use of the name like a hawk.

      1. Yes DaveW, very true. That is is such a big success, and that the hunk of junk is patented is a stain on the world of auto-mobiles.

  50. HounslowBusGarage
    10th February 2011, 20:59

    I had to go and have a bit of a poke about on this subject. I just had to.
    And I found a expired trademark for F150, this once was registered in Class 16 (Printed matter, publications, periodicals, books etc) to the same company that now publishes Grand Prix International.

  51. Keith this isn´t right

    Ferrari to call car ‘F150th Italia’ after Ford threat

    the full name of the car was already that F150th italia

    1. They now call it that on the website whereas before they had not… as described in the article.

  52. From ferrari’s past of dodging the laws and rules, why not just call it the F-Berlusconi problem solved! :)

    1. Which law are you talking about???? One is a F1 racing car with illustrious history and the other one… MOFO pick up truck as unreliable as any american product!!!
      I mean, how demented is Ford management to bring such a lawsuit as this one?
      Gosh, I had great respect for the this great country, USA, but now… I just shake my head.
      The name was to last for a racing year and that’s it!!

  53. Let’s face it, as far as formula one TV commentators are concerned it will be referred to as – wait for it – the Ferrari

    1. True, true :)

  54. Who the hell are Ford? A company who have taken money from the government as they don’t have any? They needs now more money? I don’t understand why will there be any lawsuit? That was a pickup production car on the other hand this is a F1 car, & Ferrari made it very clear why they named it F150?

  55. Ford are fools, what a great free or joint tongue in cheek marketing opportunities. They could pit their F150 against the Ferarri F150. I bet you the Ford holds more cargo, and it will run for many more miles. Or they could have the Ferarri show up at one of those Nascar Truck series races and trade paint on the big oval. Or vice versa, have an Ford F150 digitally airbrushed in a Formula 1 race.

  56. Love Ferrari, they remind me of being a kid, at school or at home and I’d scream ‘fuuuuuuuuuuuu’ and teacher or my father would look at me and I’d rethink mid yelp..

    ‘fuuuuuuuuuuunny how hitting your toe hurts so MUCH!!!!!’

    Then I’d try to cover it up by using a similar technique with other words…

    ‘OH Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…hame I did that!!’

  57. What is with these name?

    First the “Lotus” fiasco. Now this “F150” thing.

    Can someone propose an official F1 nomenclature like the IUPAC? It is just silly.

  58. kenneth Ntulume
    11th February 2011, 6:25

    Finally Massa can Lisp away……..

  59. Remember when Ferrari said that their bar code has nothing to do with subliminal Marlboro advertisement and then showed their new logo that looks like a half-a-pack of Marlboros?

    To me it´s like showing the finger to the critics.

    With the Ford F150 issue, wasting money to fight Ford is not as much fun as giving them the finger by saying that “F150” was just short for “F150th Italia”.

    Of course they came up with it afterwards. That´s the fun part. I´m pretty sure Montezemolo had fun and laughs at how they handled the bar code and Ford F150 issue and I´m laughing with him.

    Bringing sublimeness and the F150 truck/F-150 single-seater-rocket-on-four-wheels case to the courts is too low for me and luckily for Ferrari as well. Leave the rest for the Ally McBeal-series (USA:s court system in a nutshell).

  60. Peugeot didn’t moan at Porsche when they called there race car a 90x. Because it was a race car they accepted noone would think a Porsche 907 was a Peugeot.

    Ford should have realised that Ferrari aren’t selling a truck called F150 to people in Texas. So I don’t see the problem.

    Ferrari aren’t gaining any money from delusional Ford buyers strolling into a Ferrari dealership saying I understand Ferrari now make an F150. How much space does the bed have…

  61. I was amaze with the article..really helps.

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