Ford and GM Struggle over the Trademark of ‘Cruise’

The struggle between two Detroit automakers over the term “cruise” has just become harsher. Ford wants GM’s trademark rights to “Cruise” and “Super Cruise” revoked, according to Ford spokesperson Mike Levine, less than a month after GM sued Ford for trademark infringement over the name of new hands-free driving system called BlueCruise.

Cruise is the name of GM’s company that is working on self-driving cars. GM’s hands-free technology is known as Super Cruise. Ford was set to file a request with the US Patent and Trademark Office on Friday evening, requesting that both GM’s “Cruise” and “Super Cruise” trademark registrations be revoked.

Ford, according to Levine, believes the words should never have been registered in the first place, and it wants the trademarks revoked so that it and the rest of the industry can freely use the term “cruise” to represent its driver assist systems. Much of what GM argued when it filed the case was repeated in its response to the filing.Darryll Harrison, GM spokesman, 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.”

GM is committed to actively defending our brands and safeguarding the market value our goods and technology have built over many years, and this will not change claims that GM’s trademark infringement case is frivolous and without merit. Ford has no choice but to make the request with the US Patent and Trademark Office due to the lawsuit. Cruise control has been understood by drivers for decades; every carmaker offers it, and the term “cruise” is a standard shorthand for the function. The term ‘cruise’ is used by a variety of companies to describe driver assistance technology.