DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it’s asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind General Motors’ “Cruise” and “Super Cruise” trademarks, the latest in a spat between the two automakers over the phrasing of Ford’s new driver-assist system.
GM last month sued Ford over its use of the term Ford BlueCruise, arguing it’s “a brazen attempt” by Ford to take advantage of positive press about GM’s hands-free Super Cruise technology and Cruise, the San Francisco company GM bought in 2016. GM claims BlueCruise is “far less advanced than Cruise’s technology and thus likely to yield an inferior consumer experience, with the potential for comfort and safety issues.”
Ford announced it would use the name BlueCruise for its hands-free driving technology in April this year. It has called the complaint meritless and frivolous.
“To defend itself, Ford has no choice but to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind both of GM’s ‘Cruise’ and ‘Super Cruise’ trademark registrations that should have never been registered in the first place, ensuring that it and the industry as a whole can freely use the word ‘cruise’ to safely describe their driver assist technologies,” the automaker said in a statement.
“As the industry’s first true hands free driver assistance system on the market, GM’s Super Cruise was first announced in 2012 and has had a well established commercial presence since 2017 with approximately 10M miles driven using the technology to date,” Darryll Harrison, GM director of global product development for electric and autonomous vehicles, said in an emailed statement.
“Cruise, GM’s majority-owned self-driving subsidiary, has been in business since 2013. GM remains committed to vigorously defending our brands and protecting the equity our products and technology have earned over several years in the market and that won’t change.”
Ford also cited a number of other uses of the term “cruise,” such as Hyundai’s “Smart Cruise Control” or supplier ZF’s “Autocruise,” that it noted GM apparently has no issue with.
Ford is preparing to launch BlueCruise, which allows for hands-free driving on some divided highways, in the coming weeks. F-150 pickups and Mustang Mach-E crossovers will be the first vehicles to feature the technology. Ford’s Lincoln luxury brand also will deploy a similar technology, but has branded it Lincoln ActiveGlide.