The Use and Promotion of “EcoBoost” Technology

Posted on 27. May, 2008 by in 2000-2009

ford ecoboost The Use and Promotion of EcoBoost Technology

Photo Credit: Saab History

As an attendee to the Washington, D.C. Auto Show this past January, I visited a number of automobile manufacturers displays and literally stood still when I arrived at one where I found the following sign below promoting “ecoboost”.

This automobile manufacturer that is promoting this technology is Ford, yes the same company that owns Saab’s Swedish competition, Volvo. While I find this blatant hijacking of Saab’s turbocharging technology & product branding by Ford, completely unacceptable, I find it even more unacceptable that this this is going unchallenged by Saab Automobile.

Saab Automobile has been turbocharging their vehicles since 1978, beginning with the Saab 99. This year marks Saab’s 30th Anniversary of Turbocharging, a time tested and proven technology that they own, and as far as I am concerned, they should be the only ones to own it, aside of SCANIA of course, Saab’s former truck partner where the technology originally started during the Saab-Scania era.

Moving forward, what do you think about this “ecoboost” branded turbocharging technology from Ford? Doesn’t it sound a little too close to Saab’s turbocharged “ecopower” technology? This cannot be a coincidence here, can it?

Please post your comments below.

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5 Responses to “The Use and Promotion of “EcoBoost” Technology”

  1. Drew

    27. May, 2008

    wow thats pretty lame. I have never like ford.

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  2. Nahum Cook

    27. May, 2008

    Turbocharging isn’t “owned” by any one particular brand of cars. I think your finding an issue with the similar tag line in naming the family of engines. Ecoboost was just the next logical choice as Ecopower was saab which then became Ecotec under GM.

    If GM decides they really want to defend there trademark, if the ecotech name is trademarked, then they technically could go after Ford if they want to. With trademarks its about protecting your own and GM would have to prove that Ford’s use of “Ecoboost” would dilute the earnings GM would have earned based on the near similarity of the words. If they can swing a judge to believe them they could win and Ford could be screwed over so to speak.

    Example. Sturgis (the city that holds the huge bike rally) is suing the town of Sturgis, KY for holding a motorcycle rally called little sturgis under the cause of trademark infringement.

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  3. saabyurk (Ted Y)

    29. May, 2008

    I understand your chagrin. A quick search at uspto.gov shows that Saab registered ecopower with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1992. However, it was canceled July 31, 2004. Seems like it would have been a good trademark to keep alive, but they didn’t.

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  4. Ryan

    06. Jun, 2008

    Ted,

    That’s unfortunate that the ecopower trademark was cancelled in 2004, now Ford has taken the idea.

    Reply to this comment

  5. Tone

    24. Dec, 2010

    I’m not defending Ford but the technology has been around for over 100 years. The Trademark is just a label. The concept of Turbocharging is to maximizes combustion by adding compression pressure to intake. It’s always been about efficiency. Adding “Eco” is just a trend for marketing.

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