Lawsuit against Saturn?

[wei_]

Seems like a car has already been named "ION". Are automobile names trademarked internationally? I can't think of any duplicated names.

www.peugeot.ru/eng/innovat/ion.asp
Wei

[eRic 02sc2]

dunno. however peugeot made porsche rename what would have been the "901" into the 911.

[piney]

This whole nomenclature thing is a bit old. They had the SL Mercedes long before the SLx cars came out. They had the BMW 323 on the Euro market long before the Mazda 323 came out. They also had the 635 long before the 626 came out. The RX7 existed long before the RX300. Now names are different than numbers, but what is the bottom line? Lexus got sued by Lexis-Nexis when they started to use that name. Beretta sued GM over the use of Beretta, not sure if Robert Blake sued over the impingement on the Baretta name though...

It got so bad that they started to make names up so that they would not infringe on a name. Names like Denali and Alero & stuff like that are not real words, but sound neat.

GM will likely continue on with the ION. Plus, there is no telling how many names they already have a copyright to - kind of like cybersquatting - just namesquatting.

[Harry]

Trademark laws differ from place to place. Intel lost when they tried to stop Cyrix, AMD, et al from using their 80286, 80486, 80486, et al product numbers. The ruling said that you can't trademark a number so in the US, at least, it looks like numbers alone can't be a mark of trade. You can trademark "Intel 80586" but I guess they didn't think that name was sufficiently distinctive. Hence, the Pentium name was born. The next version wasn't Hexium or Sexium I assume because Hexes and sex are marketing name no-no's (even though they use sex to sell everything including denture fixatives these days ).

Hewlett-Packard made a window management system called VUE. Since no one would ever confuse an SUV with an X11 xwm I don't think it was ever an issue, but two cars named the same might mean trouble. Like "Intel 80586" often they can get around this problem by trademarking "Saturn ION" instead of just "Ion" but then they'd have to use it that way. Also, I'm fairly sure that "Ion", "ion", "iON" and "ION" are different to a trademark court so they could probably find some usable version.

Oh well, I don't think ION is _that_ great a name anyway.

Originally posted by piney
It got so bad that they started to make names up so that they would not infringe on a name. Names like Denali and Alero & stuff like that are not real words, but sound neat.

Actually Piney, Denali is a real name. As in Denali national park, its in Alaska. Its also the indian name for Mount McKinley- which is inside Denali national park. I kinda like it...its a good name for a big, brawny SUV.

As long as were on the topic of made up names, ***** like Camry, celica, altima(cleary an intentional mispelling of Ultima) comes to mind.

You folks want a good laugh, check out what Prius means...its Latin, btw- I won't spoil the fun for you

[piney]

I was shooting from the hip on that Denali name. I know that there are names out there that HAL makes up, I just don't remember any at this point. I would say Nubria is not a word, but it may well be in whatever language the folks making it speak...

[haypops]

Originally posted by Plastic Gravity


You folks want a good laugh, check out what Prius means...its Latin, btw- I won't spoil the fun for you

Nova is spanish for no go

[Jeff P]

It has to do with how similar the two products are. Toyota was going to name the Tundra the T-150 until Ford sued them. Same with the Lincoln LS. It was going to be the LS8 and LS6, but Lexus sued them since it's too close to their naming convention.

jeff

Originally posted by Jeff P
It has to do with how similar the two products are. Toyota was going to name the Tundra the T-150 until Ford sued them. Same with the Lincoln LS. It was going to be the LS8 and LS6, but Lexus sued them since it's too close to their naming convention.

jeff

Chevy should have sued them first. LS6 is a corvette motor. I can see what happened to the LS, Ls1, LS2 now. Makes you wish Mitsu had put the screws to Lexus for the RX300.

[Harry]

Originally posted by Plastic Gravity

I can see what happened to the LS, Ls1, LS2 now.

Yeah, I see now that the "LS was changed due to confusion with SL" was probably a bunch of baloney.

[DBLW1]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Corvette LS6 motor came out in the early to mid nineties? If that was so, then the Lexus LS400 would've came had the right of way since that model was introduced in late 1989. Either way, I don't think alphanumeric numbers dispute would hold for a car vs a motor designation.

I don't know how this ION name dispute will span, since the Peugeot ION isn't sold in the US. But I do remember Microsoft was starting to tout its XBox early this year and was in the midst of a multimillion dollar marketing, until a computer company came forward and said they already had a trademark XBox computer being sold. Microsoft had to buy out their XBox name because they would've lost the lawsuit if they went to court.

[L300Boy]

How about the "Lancer" from Mitsu? Remember the Dodge Lancer? I guess the question is, who would ever want to take on that name (and its horrible reliability reputation)?

[piney]

Originally posted by DBLW1
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Corvette LS6 motor came out in the early to mid nineties

http://www.factorymuscle.com/cars/70LS6.html

The LS-6 was probably around before you were (I'm assuming that you are young if you don't remenber the LS-6 Chevelle.) A friend of the family has a 1970 LS6 Chevelle - out and out nasty car - faster and wilder than a hungry street-walker. (A figure of speech.)

Anyhow, the LS-6 was around when Toyota was still on its first generation Corolla.

[GoKyu L300]

"Camry" isn't just a made up name - It comes from the word "kamuri" in Japanese, which means "crown". It's just a transliteration into English is all.

-Bryan

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by piney
I know that there are names out there that HAL makes up, I just don't remember any at this point. I would say Nubria is not a word, but it may well be in whatever language the folks making it speak...

You talking about the HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame? If so, HAL is just IBM, only each letter is the previous one before it in the alphabet.

And I looked up Prius in a Latin dictionary and all I have to say is HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Now that's amusing.

Originally posted by saturnotaku


You talking about the HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame? If so, HAL is just IBM, only each letter is the previous one before it in the alphabet.

And I looked up Prius in a Latin dictionary and all I have to say is HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Now that's amusing.

As a fan of 2001, I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know that one I just watched that the other night on DVD. We recently got a 61" HDTV--it was fabulous to just admire the detail that went into the movies lavish sets and models. Space:1999 is of the same vien, but its sets were obviously built for TV work.

What a hoot, eh?

The Prius thing was hilarious, wasn't it? That should be more widely published.

[L300Boy]

Care to share with those who arent latin inclined? ;-)

[Russ Bellinis]

LS6 on the Vette is not a trade marked name, so there is no infringement. I don't think you'll find a "LS6" badge on a Vette anywhere. LS6 is just a rpo code designating a particular engine.

[John10]

piney- I am glad to see that someone else is either old enough (or at least has enough appreciation of "ancient" history) to remember the Chevelle LS-6. I guess it was necessary but pollution and environmental regulations killed factory production of this and similar cars.

[Pete93SL1M]

Originally posted by L300Boy
Care to share with those who arent latin inclined? ;-)

Ditto,
the only definitions I found were "previous" or "prior" Link us to the funny one?