Auto giant Ford has lost its case against Model-E over it's  right to use the name. The U.S. District Court in Detroit granted a motion to dismiss the trademark infringement lawsuit brought against Model E by Ford on July 28 and entered judgment in favor of Model E. Ford had sought to stop the company from using the name Model E on the grounds it was too similar to Model T and also violated its newly obtained trademarks on the Model E name.

George Kim, co-founder and chief business development officer of Fremont, Calif.-based Model E has said "Ford became concerned when we started to receive very favorable press coverage. Then they went out and acquired a company that had some trademarks pending on the Model E name and, the very same day they filed the lawsuit against us, changed the name of their internal computer software to Model E."

After the case was reported, the undersigned conducted a brief survey amongst some netizens interested in law. While the association of Model-T with Ford was confirmed in the survey, there was an overwhelming feeling that Ford has no association with Model-E. Many of the participants felt that for a company to claim Trade mark right, the name has to be "in commerce" also. There was wide spread anger at the legal community for filing cases on frivolous grounds and it was even suggested that they should be made to pay damages for causing loss to the clients by irresponsible advice.

Any way, all is well that ends well. Mode-E must be happy about the publicity it got in the process and it should help the project to get quicker recognition.
 

Naavi