There has been a news story dominate my car related Instagram feed this morning of news that Ferrari has sent a Cease and Desist letter to a small modification company about their design based upon a Ferrari car. This is not the first time that Ferrari have sent legal warnings to 'clients' for defacing the brand or creating a case of libel against the manufacturer. This article will cover some of the past cases of Cease and Desist as well as some of the arguments against the letters.
The first known case of the cease and desist letters that Ferrari sent to clients was aimed at American rapper DeadMau5 and his 'Purrari'. The Ferrari in question was a 2014 458 Spider which he had customised with a sky blue wrap with a pixel art image of the internet character Nyan Cat, which was a video of a pixel art cat with the body of a pop tart and a rainbow trail coming from its tail. Although this wrap was distasteful and ruined the car, in my opinion, this is not what Ferrari were angry about, especially considering this wrap was used to take part in the Gumball 3000 rally, where all cars have to have stickers and wraps on them. The real issue came when pictures were shown of the floor mats and custom Ferrari logos on the car. This removed the traditional Ferrari logos and replaced them with an image of a jumping cat, rather than a prancing horse on the standard car. In the cease and desist letter, Ferrari stated that the changed logo defaced the company and designated legal action would be taken unless he removed the wrap and the custom logos. After a rant on his Twitter, DeadMau5 agreed and removed the wrap to reveal the all white 458. He later sold the car and bought a Lamborghini Huracan and Nissan GTR and did the same thing to those two. The second significant case came just last year involving German fashion designer Phillipp Plein and his green Ferrari 812 Superfast and a photo the designer put on his Instagram account. The image in question showed a pair of his trainers placed upon the rear quarter of his car. The picture seems to suggest that the shoes being placed just above the 'ferrari' logo on the car, that the Ferrari is being used for marketing purposes. This is the reason Ferrari sent the cease and desist letter as a quote from Ferrari: "tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari's brands and causes Ferrari further material damage". The latest case features 7X Design and their GTO Vision, a car I have seen and absolutely love. The basic principles are that it is a body kit based on the 488 GTB platform that culminates design elements from Ferrari's past, as a sort of homage to the best models of Ferrari's past. Featuring louvres that look similar to that of the F40, a glass engine cover similar to the F40/F50 and rims similar to the 288 GTO. However this is too much for Ferrari as they stated "coachbuilding its cars challenges their business and constitutes a trademark infringement" even if the design of the 7X Design is also trademarked. Since that, 7X Design have had to remove all images of the GTO on their social media as well as removing the actual body kit from the car. Since this, 7X Design has put out a statement attempting to revert the decision and save the GTO Vision from "being bullied out of existence by Ferrari".
The thing is about these cease and desist letters is they do have a point to them. But there in the case of 7X, there are lots of problems with it. Ferrari are complaining that this body kit is offensive to the brand and the coach built car is worthy of a cease and desist, yet they're not the first manufacturer to coach build a Ferrari. When looking at the list of Ferrari body kits, there are many of them, and some look better than others. To list a few of these body kit manufacturers there are: Novitec, Mansory, DMC, Liberty Walk, Hennessey, Ares Design, Misha Designs, Nimrod, Fabspeed and many many more, all featuring uniquely designed body kits and body modifications to many Ferrari models, yet only 7X Design are being targeted by this letter. This provides the first problem in that Ferrari cannot target one manufacturer of custom body kits without taking on all of them which Ferrari don't have the full blown power to do. One counter argument that could be present in this is that some of these body kit manufacturers (certainly Novitec and Mansory), remove the Ferrari logos and use their own logos instead. But if they do that, the DeadMau5 argument is brought up in that the logos used on a Ferrari do not belong there as it tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari. It is evident then that there are some problems with these letters.
Some people may be asking, why do people make body kits to put on a Ferrari because surely if people want a good looking car, they buy a Ferrari and if they don't like the way it looks, they can always sell it and buy a different supercar as there are plenty of other options. The main reason would be that they want to personalise it to their tastes and add their own personal touches to the car through body modification to make it truly theirs. People may also wonder why Ferrari can't do this for them, which does beg the question as to why? The answer to this is simple. The only cars that Ferrari make custom for their clients are made because the client is either rich enough to buy their way into the brand, or they have bought every single previous model and is a friend of Ferrari themselves. Here are just a few examples of Ferrari's Special Projects programme, created for one off designs for clients. The first one created was called the SP1 and was made for a client in Japan who wanted a Ferrari F430 but wanted it a little differently. So Ferrari brought in an independent coachbuilder who designed the car to the clients specification and was sold to the client for much higher than list price. Another significant one was the SP275 RW Competitzione which in essence was a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta with a few visual changes and a large price for the client. But this example is interesting as the name and the design itself is a homage to a previous car, being the 275 Competitzione, which is similar to what 7X Design are doing by creating a homage body kit. The most recent addition to the Special Projects gallery is called the Omologata and is based on the 812 Superfast, with a very similar body besides the sills on the rear window and a livery. But this car looks incredibly similar to the Touring Superleggera Aero 3 that was unveiled the same weekend. Based on a Ferrari F12, this car is a tribute to old 1930s Italian racing cars but Ferrari haven't sent them a cease and desist for what they're doing. So why have they sent one to 7X Design.
In conclusion, have Ferrari done wrong by sending out these letters? No they have not. They are protecting their integrity and their brand from being attacked or misused and they have their right to do that. Are they, however, taking it a little bit too far by threatening legal action upon a small body kit manufacturer? Yes I believe so because even back at the dawn of Ferrari, there were manufacturers taking their cars, making them a bit different and selling them as their own. These manufacturers include Pininfarina, Vignale, Touring, Zagato, Bertone and Frua, which to car enthusiasts such as myself, are known as some of the biggest names in the business for car design, each worth millions upon millions. So what if 7X are like those? What if Ferrari are stopping them from becoming the next Pininfarina or the next Bertone? The truth is, they may not become the new coachbuilder to go to, but Ferrari should not shut them down for trying.
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