General Motors and its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise are suing Ford Motor Company over its usage of the name ‘BlueCruise’.
GM and Cruise filed suit against Ford on Friday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. In the filing, GM said Ford did “not have the permission or consent of Cruise or GM,” to use the BlueCruise name for its hands-free highway driving assistant system. The automaker also alleges the BlueCruise name “is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or to deceive, as to the affiliation, connection, or association between Ford and both GM and Cruise,” and that its usage infringes on its federal and common law trademark rights.
GM’s suit also the automaker “quickly took action after Ford’s announcement to try to persuade Ford to rebrand its unreleased enhancement, but to no avail.” The Ford BlueCruise system was first announced last year and operates similar to GM’s SuperCruise system, pairing adaptive cruise control with lane-centering to enable hands-free driving capability on over 100,000
miles of divided highways in the U.S. and Canada.
In an emailed statement sent to The Detroit News, Ford spokesman Mike Levine called the GM lawsuit “meritless and frivolous,” as the word “cruise” has been used to refer to cruise control-style systems for years and years.
“Drivers for decades have understood what cruise control is, every automaker offers it, and “cruise” is common shorthand for the capability,” Levine told The Detroit News. “That’s why BlueCruise was chosen as the name for the Blue Oval’s next evolution of Ford’s Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control, which incorporates hands-free Blue Zones and other advanced cruise-control features.”
Ford initially referred to its highway drive assist system as ‘Active Drive Assist’ but later re-named it to BlueCruise. Blue Cruise will launch this year through an over-the-air-update on 2021 Ford F-150 or Mustang Mach-E models already equipped with the Ford Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep Package.
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Comments
I have to say I disagree with GM here. “Cruise” is a very general term that has been used for a long time as in cruise control. Nissan calls their system pro pilot which is similar to Tesla’s autopilot, but they don’t have a problem with it. Maybe companies should all call these systems the same thing.
“Maybe companies should all call these systems the same thing.”
Maybe that will happen in the future when these systems become more common, but right now they are marketing points and each company is using them to try and secure an advantage over the other.
So GM is protecting a name they already trademarked.
GM will lose.
I read the both the Supercruise trademark, and the Cruise Trademark, Gm is going to win this one… How much Ford has to pay will be the only question, can GM prove damage?
Will they lose when Hyundai has Smart Cruise Control and BMW has Active Cruise Control? This lawsuit might become as silly as forcing Ford to change the name to “Ford Active Blue Cruise Control” and everyone is happy.
You’re completely missing the difference. “Cruise Control” is not what’s trademarked by GM. It’s been a thing for a while. “Cruise” is trademarked by General Motors. Had Ford named the upgraded feature ‘Blue Cruise Control’ they may have let it slide. But “Blue Cruise”?? Really Ford? The first thing i think about is SuperCruise and that alone is enough for a lawsuit.
Ford has been stealing other people’s ideas from its very inception. The Model T was almost entirely engineered by the Dodge Brothers. You guys may have seen the movie where Ford stole the invention of intermittent wipers from the guy who invented it and was trying to sell it to Ford.
The Dodge Brothers did design the Model T. It was not stolen from the Dodge Brothers. The Dodge Brothers were hired by Henry Ford to design and build the Model T. They were both employees as head engineers and it is a Ford.
Plot twist; Tom Cruise sues both GM and Ford for use of his name without permission.
By the way i’m not a fan of this kind of lawsuits but in this case ford literally asks for it, this is a major trolling effort maybe hundred other names available for them but they opted out piggy-back their next-door-neighbor GM, seriously!?
Ford Deserves this after what they did to Tesla… Tesla wanted to call the Model 3, the Model E, and Ford shot them down in an ugly public confrontation, and messed up Tesla Nomanclature.
What goes around comes around.
Does Ford have a Trademark on BlueCruise? GM definitely trademarked SuperCruise.
One needs to understand extensively how trademarking works and if GM has a case. Definitely seems plausible. Especially if Ford hasn’t secured a Trademark on BlueCruise.
Go read the trademarks, before you comment, GM has this covered well in multiple trademarks. Using Cruise as a brand name in any form is not going to fly for an ADAS system.
Ford could call it “Blue Oval advanced cruise control” without issue. Then you are using cruise as a description, instead of a brand
Ford should’ve used the name Co-Pilot. Lots of names Ford could’ve used.
Yup, might have been cheaper, Ford was going to call it Co Pilot 360, I thought?
Hey Ford, you are re late to the party. Just choose a different name, and things would be easy for everyone!
Jimbo
Co-auto pilot would’ve been a much better name…
Blueballs?….
Should have gone with “The Blue ̶O̶v̶a̶l̶ Pill driving mode” 🤭
How about the Blue Balls driving mode.
The name sound similar, Super Cruise, Blue Cruise. It seem like Ford could’ve got a bit creative.
Lol. What!? “Blue Cruise” is not even a “good” trade mark to identify Ford’s self-driving tech. Every time I see or hear the words “Blue Cruise” an animated blue dog pops in to my head. In fact, I can’t even think, say, or type the words “Blue Cruise” without a huge amount of effort. The words come out as “Blue’s Clues”, which to me is huge marketing fail for Ford. And GM wants to sue Ford for this fail?
I need to go find my Thinking Chair.
only way gm can make money these days is to sue, go Barra. get rid of her and just her way over rated salary will help their bottom line.
Mary is the best president in the history of GM you misogynistic POS. She has doubled GM’s stock price. Without her and Tadge, the C8 wouldn’t exist as a mid-engine.
I guess you haven’t checked out GM latest profits???
Blue, Blue Oval
That is all Ford GM
I am a Chevy guy but GM you are loosing it.
Spend more time and money developing more reliable vehicles….
Total idiots…
My wife and I are very happy with our third Equinox, perfect vehicle for our requirements. I am very interested in Super Cruise, when will it be available on the Equinox? Make it soon, and very soon!!