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It’s “molto bene” and prosecco all around after Ferrari’s latest legal win. The Italian sports car company had gone to The Hague – no, not for war crimes – to try and get back one of its most storied brand names. The Testarossa wordmark had been declared invalid by the trademark office after a toymaker argued that Ferrari hadn’t used it in more than five years and therefore it didn’t belong to the supercar maker anymore.
The decision by the General Court of the EU annuls a pair of decisions made a decade ago that stripped the name from Ferrari. A German named Kurt Hesse, who was a board member for a toy and model car company, applied to have the trademark revoked from Ferrari for use on toys and other items, and was no doubt happy to get the name without licensing fees. But that’s now been overturned. The ruling is big for Ferrari, but also for the car industry as a whole.
Trademark Case Took A Decade To Resolve
No, Ferrari didn’t forget to get a trademark for the Testarossa name. The car might be perfect for running from the law, but the brand didn’t run from its responsibilities on this one. The Italian automaker first applied for and was granted the use of the name for cars way back in 1987. It means redhead in Italian, and while it normally refers to hair color, in this case, it’s a reference to the red crinkle-finish on the flat-12’s cam covers. For Ferrari, it’s also a nod to the 1957 250 Testa Rossa which also had red cylinder heads.
Ferrari renewed the trademark in 2006, adding its use in toys, games, Christmas ornaments, and other merchandise items to the categories it was trademarked under. But the argument from Hesse was that Ferrari wasn’t really using it.
EU trademark law says if you don’t have “genuine use” for five years in a row, you can lose it. The law says you have to actually use the name, not just give it a token gesture.
In 2015, Hesse went through the process of getting it taken away from Ferrari. He won his cases, with the EU Intellectual Property Office ruling that Ferrari wasn’t using the name because it wasn’t selling cars wearing it, so it was free to use.
Ferrari, obviously, wanted its name back. So in 2023, it filed suit to have the EUIPO decision annulled. Well, more accurately, it spent years appealing the decision with the EUIPO to little effect.
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