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Shelby sold the Cobra name to Ford in the late 60's or early 70's.
At some point in the past, AC was partially owned by Brian Angliss and Ford. Since Ford owns the Cobra trademark, they could use it on anything that they wanted to. I believe that the car that we call the AC MK IV over here in the states was sold as the AC Cobra in Europe with Ford's blessing. Why they chose to call it the AC MK IV in the states is unknown to me.
After Ford sold their interest in AC cars, I suspect that AC could no longer use the Cobra name. Thus we have such memorable names like AC Super Blower.
At some point Shelby sued Ford to get the Cobra name back. The result of that law suit is something like Shelby can use the Cobra name on those cars that he builds that look like the cars he built in the 60's that were called Cobras. Shelby was not allowed to say use the name Cobra on the car that was eventually named the Shelby Series 1. And further if you are a manufacturer of a Cobra replica, you better not use the name Cobra without a license from Shelby unless you want Shelby and Ford to jointly sue you.
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