Ransom Olds had an assmbly line in 1901. Ford was the person who made a moving assembly line work productively.
Precursors to he assembly line were interchangable parts, mostly in gunsmithing in prior century. Then several folks made 'assembly lines' before Ford did.
The big innovation Ford made was to refine the assembly line into a smooth MOVING operating system that saved him money (so the worker did not have to move, the stuff moved past him.)
Anyway I drive Fords, manual tranny Fords exclusively.. And like them. And yes Ford had a prior lawsuit with Toyota over the "T-150" which pretty clearly was a steal of the Ford truck "F-150". So i would guess they would need to defend the trademark.
Unlike Monster Cable, they are not suing any and everybody.. LOL.
(And Monster Cable to this day is reviled for it)