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Originally Posted by What'saCobra?
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AC Cars Limited, from 1962(3?) were exclusively licensed by FORD Motor Company to build and sell Cobras, outside of North America.
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And yet Shelby originally owned the Cobra trademark, which he later sold to Ford. So how is it that Ford could have licensed AC to sell Cobras at that time?
AC did sell the MK II COB and COX cars as Cobras. If Shelby owned the trademark, I assume Shelby would have agreed to letting those cars be called Cobras, not Ford.
And when AC sold the MK III cars with 289 engines, I believe they sold them with a name like AC Sports, not AC Cobras. Perhaps by that point AC was no longer allowed to use the Cobra name?
It seems to me that AC did not use the Cobra again name until the advent of the AC MK IV, which had Ford involvement, at a point in time that Ford owned the Cobra trademark.
Perhaps AC did not have the continuous right to the Cobra name from the 60's up until Alan got involved as you suggest.