Ferrari S.p.A. copyright infringement to FCA - strong arming or closer to the source?

The latest Prancing Horse discusses FCA use of Ferrari intellectual property, including changes to the FCA's logo. Al DeLauro's article explains, in part:

"Use of their trademarks has gained greater economic significance for Ferrari causing the company to exercise greater control over its various trademarked images, words and elements. This trademark realignment comes with a reaffirmation of Ferrari's relationships with the major clubs world wide ...."

Very diplomatic, as you'd expect.

I'm with Ferrari on this, the trademarks are theirs.

 

In what way has that occurred in SpA's relationship with FCA, arguably the largest and most influential club in SpA's largest export market?

I long for the days when FCA's leadership had a personal relationship with LdeM and we never had this crap going on... Wasn't that long ago.

 

so ALL the "stuff" sold at FCA events will be official Ferrari Spa items bought from Ferrari Spa ?

THIS is what the "agreements" are about, the right to gouge as much money as they can from whoever they can.

 

We had some very heated discussions at our regional annual meeting over this and the changes which...... in my very uninformed, possibly naive, and maybe even incorrect altogether, opinion...are almost being forced on the FCA because of the "agreement".

There seemed to be an almost scripted response about "more of the membership getting a greater "return" for their annual dues".

This translated into some changes for our region which some of the members didn't seem to like to say the least.

I understood both sides of the argument and agreed with some of what each side had to say. I could strongly sense that the board members knew more than they were "allowed" to say and were more than a little frustrated about that themselves.

Again, only in my opinion, I think the "agreement" had more to it than simply some resolution about trademark infringement over the logos and club gear. Just guessing though!!??

What I don't understand is why Ferrari would want (or the FCA would allow) the details of the agreement to be so secretive. Well other than the whole thing was orchestrated, finalized, and agreed to by a bunch of lawyers!!

 

Don't know much about FCA, including its relationship with Ferrari, just passing along the article.

I don't even care about this issue, except that I suspect it means that FCA will never, ever have its own club racing program.

Of far greater concern to me is the possible conflict between moretti's and Jdubbya's signatures. My heart is with moretti, my head with Jdubbya.

 

The FOC went through this recently. Ferrari has to protect their trademark. It is certainly a legal thing that Ferrari was forced to do by their own attorneys.

aehaas

 

I understand protecting trademarks and your business, but telling the FCA that we can't use the Cavalino or long "F" in Ferrari is ridiculous. We are representing the brand and essentially providing free advertisement for the marque. The FCA does alot of great things for several charities, which reflects back on Ferrari. The logos for the FCA are going to get to the point where your not even going to know what club the logo represents. No Horse, No Long "F". I enjoy being a part of the FCA and being forced into relinquishing our logo which has stood for 50 years is a bit disheartening.

 

I sent Al DeLauro a link to this thread, so hopefully he will chime in since his knowledge about this isn't just rumors or speculation.

 

I heard that some years ago Luca went to a GP race in China and was turned off by
the fans waving very poor quality cheap prancing horse flags. He probably thought: "How can we
sell a Ferrari watch for $10,000 if you can buy a Ferrari flag for ten cents?"
So he tightened up on the use of the logo and lettering style. But I don't think
they can stop books from being written that have FERRARI in the title (isn't there one called "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari")
But where it hurts for enthusiasts is when they try to stop a club magazine from using the name Ferrari or the a club of car owners from being called a Ferrari Club. Porsche went after a Porsche magazine and they had to change the name to Excellence. Shelby went after the Shelby American Automobile Club for awhile but they kissed and made up but he still likes to sell licenses to make Shelby shirts, etc. though he hasn't been able to corral the Cobra name from being used on things like golf clubs and speedboats.
So I think Ferrari only wants to keep everything wearing the badge high quality so they can have vendors selling accessories at their dealerships selling only the best. But they should be careful of not trampling on the clubs that are formed of fans of the marque in the process of protecting their name. It's a fine line they have to walk....

 

Didn't Cavallino have a similar problem when they started their mag way back when?

 

It was within the first couple of issues that there was a notice about how the tag line for Cavallino had to be changed to solve issues with Ferrari. If memory serves me correctly, they published the Ferrari letter asking for the change.

As far as FCA being forced into an agreement it makes me less than happy with Ferrari. Guess those that were party to the negotiation know the extent of the pressure and whether the driver was FNA or SpA.

I remember a time when it was a huge deal that the then head of FNA showed up at a FCA National. FNA and SpA didn't care about the clubs or their members unless they were buying a brand new car. There was some support from individual dealers.

So, when do we have to become F-Chat since "Ferrari" can't accually be used.

Trademark protection is a legitimate activity but doing it to the detriment of those that have been most supportive of the brand is counterproductive.

As for Al DeLauro it would be nice for him to say something here. My expectation is quite low since he has been zero responsive to communication on another club matter that I made.

Jeff

 

What was their reason for objecting now? As you say it has been that way for a long time. Maybe they should support the Ferrari club instead of alienating the members. I am no longer a member of FCA but I was in the past. I don't see how any money made for the changes will support the Formula 1 effort.

 

It all comes down to Ferrari making more money selling shirts than they do selling cars. This crackdown is no surprise, given the opening of Ferrari merchandise stores all over the place. Their stuff is not cheap. An FCA shirt is $30 or $40 because it's essentially a break even transaction. A Ferrari shirt is double or more for the same shirt. Sweaters and jackets? Wow, they are astronomical! So now if I want a Ferrari shirt, it's going to cost $70 less my $7 discount, rather than $35. I don't have much regalia, but as the stuff I do own wears out, I won't be replacing it with official Ferrari clothing. If Ferrari no longer wants all of the free advertising, I'm happy to oblige. Clubs have to change their individual logos? Big deal. Don't even have the word "Ferrari" on the logo, then only club members will know what group I belong to and I won't have to give them the secret handshake.

 

Rob,

I did meet Al at the FCA National at Elkhart Lake a year ago. Had decent feelings towords him then and some of his Capo letters in Prancing Horse have been nice discussions of club issues.

My issue with Al now has to do with an FCA issue about the St. Louis chapter. I sent an e-mail to the address listed in Prancing Horse giving a discussion on my issue and why it needed to be addressed at the national leadership issue. That was about 2 months ago and there has been no notice of acknowlegement. I will not in open forum discuss the underlying issue but it is not solvable by the chapter or the region.

Jeff

 

That's one way to look at it.

Another way is that you are weakening the trademark (as an independent entity not part of Ferrari S.p.A.). The law requires Ferrari to be quite diligent, and especially if Ferrari wants to press their case more and more internationally (as Ferrari and F1 presses further into IP-reckless countries like China) they *have* to do this.

Or would you rather see the day come when chinese knockoffs of Ferrari stuff can be sold legally?

 

Trademarks are very specific symbols. The word Ferrari can't be trademarked. Well, actually you could trademark Ferrari in Helvetica 12 but that'd be a pretty crappy logo.

 

True, it's not the name but the font that's trademarked but, who else has a problem with it?

I don't think Lamborghini has any litigation going on over the use of their logo; of course I could be wrong.

 

Bingo !!

100% agree with EVERYTHING you said

I have been a Ferrari nut since I was a small boy but this crackdown on the Ferrari clubs is ridiculous and unwarranted and leaves a bad taste in the mouth .... I love the cars but hate the attitude

Why don't they go crackdown in a true sense on the rip offs from China and Taiwan ?

 

This is almost like the PR nightmare Pez suffered when it brought a lawsuit against a little mom & pop Pez museum in California. http://blogs.findlaw.com/courtside/2009/07/the-pez-museum-lawsuit.html

 

He has limited internet access at the moment but he will reply here when he gets a chance. It could be another few days.

 

In my short conversations with Al I have found him to be a very reasonable and helpful. I don't envy his position as President of FCA since much of his time is spent trying to put out fires in the various Regions and Chapters.

I agreed with his assessment that probably 99% of the members enjoy the benefits of the FCA w/o a lot of problems. But for some reason there is a small number that make things difficult. Power trips including my-way-or-highway thinking creates discord within the Region or Chapter and things go downhill quickly. In the SE Region case Al and the exec board stepped in and "righted the ship" to restore order and keep the best of the Regional execs in place including David Scott and Marc McConnell.

It's not an easy job.

 

One poster hit the nail on the head. For Ferrari to own their intellectual property or "Brand" it has to be very diligent and be very pro-active legally in controlling its use.

Unfortunately, if they let just one, or two or three or 26, third party organizations use their Logos, because remember the FCA has many regions, it creates a chink in the legal armor that you can bet someone will drive a truck through, like China.

Ferrari drives revenues from its "Brand" that are staggering in nature. If they were to lose their Brand rights and subsequent revenues, it would have a devastating effect on the company. Those revenues have grown to become the difference as to whether Ferrari is a viable company.

I was one of the members that wanted to fight for the clubs use of the current logo. But when I looked at the big picture and realized that without "Logo" income Ferrari could not survive, well it puts it in a new light so to speak. The executive team at FCA did a great job working with the Factory to make the situation a "win, win" and that really is the best that it could be, and how it should be.

Hopefully, going forward FCA and Ferrari will work together to make the experience of owning a Ferrari and even better experience.