Glasslinks

Glass Industry Biz News 

October 1998
Carlite Starts Adding Trademark Logos to Glass

    Ford Carlite (Visteon) has started adding some of their trademark logos to some of their auto glass parts. The classic Ford script oval has been brought back for a while, but now is appearing more pronounced. The new Ford Escort ZX2 2-door model has the brand logo in the frit area of the back glass, and the classic Lincoln star insignia is now being used on the Town Car. Upcoming plans include the backlite logos on the Cougar, Mustang, and Thunderbird by 2001.

    It would seam that Carlite would have a lock on the aftermarket replacement parts for these and other upcoming parts with the trademarked logos. Although non-OEM suppliers will probably tool up for these parts, it is doubtful they will be granted permission to include the copyrighted insignias. Many shops already have problems, mainly with the foreign car glass customers, who willfully request to have the "bug" (insignia) on their replacement glass (such as BMW, Mercedes, etc.).

    According to Bob Pierce, Carlite Automotive Glass Operations marketing, the goal is to have a Ford logo or slogan on every piece of glass that goes into their vehicles. In an effort to enhance vehicle brand identification and identify OEM glass, Ford is continuing to test and evaluate new combinations of dot matrix and shade band symbols.

 

source: Glasslinks Newsbrief