This year, as a tribute to the 150 years since the unification of Italy, Ferrari named its famed F-1 racer the Ferrari F150. The Ford Motor Company, afraid that consumers would confuse a Ford F-150 Truck with that of the Italian F-1 race car, sued Ferrari in Federal District Court in Michigan in January, 2011. According to the complaint, Ford alleges trademark dilution, trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and cyber piracy under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), including the amendment to the Lanham Act known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. http://www.scribd.com/doc/48577431/Ford-v-Ferrari-Complaint. Not a small affair for the American car and truck giant Ford, who manufactures cars for the blue collar automobile market and trucks for the working class and farm communities. Ferrari must have been surprised when it read that “Ferrari‟s wrongful use of the mark “F150” dilutes, blurs, tarnishes, and whittles away the distinctiveness of the F-150® trademark.” See the side by side comparison here or visit the link to the original article below.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/autos/ford_ferrari_f150/index.htm