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General Motors ends its lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. for the use of one word: cruise.
The battle began in July when GM sued Ford for copyright infringement saying Ford’s name for its hands-free driving system, BlueCruise, sounded too much like GM Cruise and Super Cruise’s self-driving car subsidiary of GM, its hands-free driving system which it introduced in 2012 and launched in 2017.
GM told Free Press on Sunday evening that the lawsuit was amicably resolved, but declined to release final terms. A Ford spokesperson said the settlement was still pending, but commented that future use of the word BlueCruise may continue on future Ford cars.
The comments come after attorneys for the automakers filed a settlement notice with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, saying the parties are working out the terms of a settlement. The notice called for a conditional dismissal and the two parties have 60 days to report to the court if they can’t come to an agreement.
GM spokesman Darryll Harrison told Free Press on Sunday evening: “The parties have resolved the matter and related proceedings amicably and will have no further comment.
Ford spokesman Mike Levine could not confirm that the terms of the settlement had been finalized and said: “We plan to settle the lawsuit with GM and have no further comments at this time. “
When asked to clarify GM’s statement in light of the fact that the terms have not been fully finalized, Harrison said: “Our record remains valid.”
But a hint that Ford will retain the use of the BlueCruise name as part of the settlement comes from Levine’s comments to the Free Press that Ford will later share more information about the BlueCruise technology coming to other Ford vehicles at a later date.
“Additionally, we recently announced that BlueCruise will be available for the new Ford Expedition 2022 and is already available for the Mustang Mach-E and F-150,” said Levine.
Ford announced BlueCruise in April, soon a legal battle ensued in July when GM filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Ford over the name.
In the complaint, GM said it had had “lengthy discussions” with Ford over the name, but failed to come to an agreement. GM’s Cruise autonomous driving subsidiary has been in operation since 2013.
In August, Ford filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the term ‘cruise’ was ‘ubiquitous’ for driver assistance functions, a term that has been used for 50 years and that consumers associate with many car manufacturers. Levine has called the GM trademark claim “unworthy and frivolous” and Ford has filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office requesting that the “Cruise” and “SuperCruise” trademarks of GM be canceled.
On September 10, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston questioned GM’s decision to block Ford’s use of the term BlueCruise during a hearing for GM’s preliminary injunction preventing Ford from using BlueCruise.
“I have the impression that the likelihood of substantive success is unclear to me at this point. It seems to me that there are validity issues regarding the idea of using the Cruise designation and the Super Cruise brand since it was – I think there is evidence that it has been used before in a – in a more generic setting, and it seems to me that Super Cruise, for example, is much more generic or descriptive than anything else and ditto with Cruise, ”Illston said according to a hearing transcript.
The judge said that evidence of confusion over the word “cruise” was missing.
“I am not sure of the likelihood of success on the merits and that is the main thing that would make me defeat the motion,” Illston said.
She also noted, “I personally take a jazz cruise every now and then, and sometimes there’s a blues cruise,” she said. “I’m just saying that the words you chose to use like your own are being used by other people all the time.”
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Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and subscribe to our automotive newsletter. Become a subscriber.
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