{"id":207246,"date":"2021-08-16T16:18:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=207246"},"modified":"2021-08-16T16:31:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:31:34","slug":"cruise-battle-carries-with-ford-firing-latest-salvo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/08\/cruise-battle-carries-with-ford-firing-latest-salvo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford Fires Latest Salvo in Battle of “Cruise” Name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

General Motors doesn\u2019t want to share the sandbox with Ford when it comes to using \u201ccruise\u201d in the name of semi-autonomous driving technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ford
Ford is offering BlueCruise, a subscription-based version of Level 2 autonomous driving technology this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In response to GM\u2019s lawsuit against its fellow Detroit-area automaker, Ford asked the U.S. Patent Office to rescind the trademarks GM filed using the word. Officials claim that \u201ccruise\u201d is so generic a term that no one should be able to lay claim to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201ccruise\u201d chaos came to the fore when Ford announced its new semi-autonomous driving technology in mid-April, dubbed BlueCruise<\/a><\/u><\/strong>. GM already employs two versions of the word for similar purposes. It\u2019s Super Cruise technology performs a similar task to Ford\u2019s new product. Meanwhile, it also owns a significant stake in Cruise LLC, which is developing autonomous vehicles to be used as robo-taxis in the San Francisco area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going to court<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Cruise
GM’s Cruise subsidiary is hoping to offer a fleet of robs-taxis in the near future.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFord\u2019s decision to rebrand by using a core mark used by GM and Cruise will inevitably cause confusion between the parties, the affiliation, connection, or association between them, and\/or origin, sponsorship, or approval of their goods and services,\u201d GM said in the lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit was filed<\/a><\/u><\/strong> in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco where GM\u2019s self-driving enterprise is testing the system without safety drivers. According to the lawsuit, GM, Cruise and Ford \u201cengaged in protracted discussions\u201d following Ford\u2019s announcement, \u201cbut Ford insisted on moving forward with the \u2018Blue Cruise\u2019 name despite Cruise\u2019s preexisting rights.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GM and Cruise<\/strong><\/a><\/u><\/strong> are asking for Ford to pay monetary damages related to the incident and for the manufacturer to stop using the BlueCruise name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cadillac’s Super Cruise system allows some hands-free driving but requires drivers to stay focused in the even of an emergency.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d according to Reuters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t sue if no infringement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While GM went to court, Ford \u2014 which contends the suit is without merit \u2014 instead went to the patent office. That move is seen by some as akin to pouring gasoline on a fire; however, company officials claim there was little choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To defend itself, Ford has no choice but to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind both of GM\u2019s \u201cCruise\u201d and \u201cSuper Cruise\u201d trademark registrations that should have never been registered in the first place,” Ford said. “Any number of companies use the word ‘cruise’ in connection with driver assist technology.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ford essentially contends the word cruise is commonly used by all automakers for similar technologies, in particular, cruise control. However, the automaker offered other examples, including \u201csmart cruise control\u201d by Hyundai, \u201cpredictive cruise\u201d by Mack Trucks and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Motors doesn\u2019t want to share the sandbox with Ford when it comes to using \u201ccruise.\u201d In response to the lawsuit GM filed against Ford about the uses of \u201cBlueCruise,\u201d the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker asked the U.S. Patent Office to rescind the trademarks GM filed using the word, claiming \u201ccruise\u201d is a commonly used term in the industry. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":166708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,1169,11,9],"tags":[1854,2188,364,348,2189,1857],"make":[],"post-state":[335],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207246"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207256,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207246\/revisions\/207256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207246"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=207246"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=207246"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=207246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}