Ford is bringing a trade mark infringement action in a Detroit district court against 2600 Enterprises, the publisher of the 2600 magazine and 2600.com web site.
Ford’s argument is that by pointing the domain name FuckGeneralMotors.com to its site, it is “confusing the public into believing that somehow Ford has approved… or is somehow involved.” It continues, “As a result, Ford is inevitably linked not only to the vulgar, strident criticism of a competitor, but also associated with the offensive, obscene word that is used in the domain name.”
The car giant, which is supported in its action by General Motors, seeks damages for dilution of its trade mark and damage to its goodwill. Previously, the domain name pointed to General Motors’ own site, GM.com, until, in October 2000, 2600 Enterprises complied with a cease-and-desist letter received from General Motors. At the time of writing, it seems that the domain name no longer points to Ford’s site.
2600.com is separately being sued by the movie industry for previously posting the illegal DeCSS code that can be used to break the anti-copying security in DVDs.