Clash of The Titans: GM Sues Ford Over ‘BlueCruise’
General Motors claims Ford’s use of the ‘BlueCruise’ name infringes on GM trademarks.
Back in April, Ford announced that its SAE Level 2 autonomous system will be called BlueCruise, which the company plans to offer in its F-150 and Mustang Mach-E models. According to a Reuters report, General Motors and Cruise (GM’s robo-taxi sub-brand) have filed a trademark lawsuit against Ford in a California federal court claiming that the nomenclature used by the Blue Oval brand infringes upon GM trademarks like Super Cruise. Ford described the lawsuit as “meritless” and “frivolous”.
In a statement issued by General Motors, the automaker asserted, “While GM had hoped to resolve the trademark infringement matter with Ford amicably, we were left with no choice but to vigorously defend our brands and protect the equity our products and technology have earned over several years in the market.”
Almost a decade ago, when the Blue Oval brand entered into a partnership with Tesla, Ford also prohibited the EV manufacturer from registering, and/or using the ‘Model E’ moniker for any of its future offerings. Ford reasoned that Model E would confuse customers as it sounds a lot like automaker’s legendary Model T, which is why Tesla named its mass volume EV the Model 3.
GM's claim is meritless and frivolous. Drivers for decades have understood what cruise control is and “cruise” is common shorthand for the capability. Any number of companies use the word “cruise” to brand driver assist technology. That’s why BlueCruise was chosen. https://t.co/zxhW1EONG4
— Mike Levine (@mrlevine) July 24, 2021
What goes around comes around, you say? Not really. You see unlike homonym product names, Ford claims (and we agree) that drivers (and almost every automaker in the world) use the word “cruise” as slang to denote cruise control’s capability to automatically regulates the speed of a vehicle. Ford North America’s Product Communications director, Mark Levine shared a list of brands via his Twitter handle that also used the word “cruise” in the nomenclatures of their driver-assist systems.
Levine cited the following “cruise” examples:
- Autocruise – ZF
- IQ-Cruise – Traxen
- SmartCruise – Bendix
- Robocruise – trademark for RoboCars
- Smart Cruise Control – Hyundai
- Active Cruise Control – BMW
In October last year, Consumer Reports ranked GM’s Super Cruise system as the best performing autonomous driving technology in the segment after it outperformed Tesla’s Autopilot and Ford/ Lincoln’s Co-Pilot 360 tech during CR’s evaluation. Ford will introduce its new BlueCruise tech sometime later this year for the price of $600(three-year period), and it will be offered with a Hands-Free Mode.
Image Source: Ford, GM
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