The Piaggio Group has announced that a design registered by a Chinese party has been declared invalid by the division of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The designs were similar to the Vespa scooters exhibited at the EICMA 2019 in Milan.
The EUIPO invalidity division annulled the registration since it was “incapable of eliciting a different general impression with respect to the registered design” of the Vespa Primavera, and pointed out that the registration was an unlawful attempt to reproduce the scooter’s aesthetic elements.
The Vespa Primavera is protected by the design registered by the Piaggio Group from 2013. A three-dimensional trademark of the Vespa scooter and copyright safeguards the artistic value of the shape of the Vespa, a style icon since 1946.
The invalidity proceedings are part of the wider activities against counterfeiting undertaken by the Piaggio Group for years. This includes continuous monitoring of the databases of internationally registered designs and trademarks. This has led to the cancellation of more than 50 trademarks registered by manufacturers worldwide in the last two years alone.
