Ferrari wins back rights to Testarossa brand at EU court

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Ferrari on Wednesday scored a win at the EU's second-highest court, which said the luxury sportscar maker had been wrongfully stripped off the rights to the Testarossa brand name.

Ferrari's rights on the mark were revoked in 2023 by the European Union's Intellectual Property Office, which said the company had not put them to "genuine use" for a continuous period of five years between 2010 and 2015.

But the EU's General Court annulled that decision, stating that Ferrari had used the trade mark, through giving explicit or implied approval to dealers selling second-hand Testarossas and through licensing the brand for scale models.

"The use of the trademark to guarantee the identity of the origin of the goods for which it was registered, when reselling second-hand goods is capable of constituting genuine use," the court said.

Ferrari built its iconic Testarossa cars, made famous by the 1980s TV show 'Miami Vice', between 1984 and 1996, and now only second-hand models are available.

Its rights to the brand name had been challenged by the head of German toy maker Autec.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Editing by Louise Heavens)