The Skyline nameplate has been inexorably linked with Nissan, and even enjoys a storied popularity primarily based on its high-performance GT-R variants. Any automobile fanatic who can inform a 5-speed from a CVT is aware of the title. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped Ford from trademarking the “Skyline” title with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace.
The submitting, found by Ford Authority, is dated July 12 beneath the class of “Motor and land autos, specifically, SUVs, vehicles, and vehicles.” Both Ford intends to apply it to an upcoming mannequin (or trim degree), is squatting on it in hopes of getting plans for it down the highway. Or perhaps Ford is simply trolling Nissan in an epic approach.
The Skyline title really predates Nissan. It was initially utilized by Japan’s Prince Motor Firm for his or her mid-size sedan. Within the early Sixties, engineers wedged a straight-six into the previously four-cylinder household saloon and created a robust racing pedigree. Prince and Nissan merged in 1966, however the Skyline mannequin continued and was developed into the legendary Skyline GT-R.
It’s one in all Nissan’s longest working nameplates in Japan and holds lots of cultural cachet. Earlier this yr, a Japanese newspaper that Nissan was going to kill off the Skyline, a Nissan govt took the weird step of issuing a strongly worded denial in the course of the introduction of a unique mannequin altogether.
Ford, then again, has by no means used the title, nonetheless it did use the title “Skyliner” on a number of fashions within the Nineteen Fifties. It was used to indicate numerous open-top fashions such because the Crestline Skyliner, Crown Victoria Skyliner, and Galaxie Skyliner — the final automobile to function a manufacturing unit retractable hardtop till the 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT Spyder.
The present Nissan Skyline is offered as an Infiniti Q50 within the U.S., however it appears that evidently Nissan will be unable to make use of the Skyline title right here until some legal professionals become involved. If we had been them, we might be working extra time to trademark Silvia, Patrol, Bluebird and so forth proper about now.
