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Nissan Sues Audi Over "Q"

 Audi's decision to name its new sport-utility vehicle Q7 has no fans at Nissan's headquarters-the Japanese automaker has filed suit in court against Audi, saying the German company's use of the letter infringes on the trademarks it has established for its Q45 sedan and QX56 SUV. The Detroit News reports that Nissan has used the letter to designate some Infiniti vehicles since 1989, and that the company has filed trademarks for phrases such as "the new Q." Nissan, the paper adds, wants courts to stop Audi from using the letter in its advertising or marketing.  

I'd probably imagine the same response from BMW if someone went ahead and made a car called the "M4".
 

Compare "Q7" with "QX56" -- the latter has two numbers, not one, and an extra letter.  Follow these rules and Ford should be suing Suzuki for the F in "Forenza."
 

Well Infiniti has the M45 & M35.  Apparently that's ok for them since it has one extra number, so why isn't it ok for Audi, they have one less number.  

Well argued!  

I would say the infiniti symbol, the twisted 8, is infiniti's trademark signature.  But as for a Q45 G30 or what have you, they're more like model #'s than names anyway.  Do people really remember model #'s like this? Why shouldn't they just name the *** cars? I could remember "The Infiniti Tortellini" alot easier than the QFX45, or FX45 or FQX35 or whatever, ***  

Afterall there are only 26 letters and 10 numbers. automakers are running out of combinations.