Is Ford Motor Company really doing this?

David,

Happy to be of help. Hope the old-cronies at Ford spend more money developing cars, and less time harassing small businesses like yours.

According to Wikipedia, the word Mustang is a derivative of the Spanish word mesteño or mestengo which stands for "Ownerless Beast"...perhaps Ford should notice that their use comes in third place, after the animal itself, the WWII airplane!

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

Next thing you know Ford will be telling the horses that they must be renamed, and that all Universities must cease and decist from using their name for a mascot because that damages the brand image!

Ciao,

Steve

 

Hello David,

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. I have however dealt with several minor TM issues within our small company in the past.

Wikipedia has a good section on TM definitions:

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

Particularly take a look at the section on "Wrongful or groundless threats of infringement".

Although Ford can try to chase you for the use of Stang, the fact is that they do not hold the Trademark for that name. The US Government is very particular about TM's, down to the font-type, size, color, etc. of the name, not just the products/services covered. If Ford wants that name, then they need to file for registration of the Stang TM

Check out the US Gov TM office at:

http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/index_tm.html

Search on the word Stang. There are very few matches, as compared with Mustang, which Ford has multiple TM's. You may want to see if filing for a TM for your business makes sense or not ($325 to file with the US Gov). I would in the least file for a local business license in your city/county as Stang F/X (usually very cheap), with your business listed as designing and building aftermarket vehicle accessories. In your marketing materials / catalog, and online you can then list that you have products for X-Y years of Mustang. I would just keep Ford and Mustang off of the physical products themselves.

In the spirit of the law, Ford should be concentrating on protecting the Ford, and Mustang name (rightfully so). This means that you can not produce products with the words Ford or Mustang on them without contractual permission from Ford, as this can be seen as misleading to the consumer as to being part of their product line. Common sense says that if your products use a different brand name, such as Stang F/X, then you are not insinuating in any manner that these are Ford products. Just like other companies whom sell aftermarket items for Fords and Mustangs, you too offer such legitimate items. Imagine if JC Whitney had to sell all of their products with pseudonyms, and that they could not have the name Mustang in their catalog!

This does not mean that Ford will leave you alone, nor stop them from filing a lawsuit...bully-tactics are part of the game, and their big corporate lawyers like to stretch their TM's.

Steve