Ferrari Wins Back the Rights to the Testarossa Name
Ferrari’s Formula 1 team may still be trying to figure things out on the track in 2025, but that hasn’t stopped the automaker from notching victories elsewhere.
The storied sports car maker scored a big legal win in Europe earlier this week, according to Reuters. The E.U.’s General Court (EGC) ruled that the Italian marque had wrongly been stripped of the rights to the Testarossa name.
The Testarossa may be one of the most iconic cars to ever leave Maranello, but Ferrari hasn’t owned the rights to the trademark in its home continent since 2023. That year, the head of the German toy company Autec argued that Ferrari had not put the brand to “genuine use” for five consecutive years, between 2010 and 2015, and had therefore given up its hold on it. The trade bloc’s Intellectual Property Office agreed, and the company’s rights to the name were revoked.
The Ferrari Testarossa was in production from 1985 to 1996
Ferrari
But on Wednesday, that decision was annulled. The EGC, which is the E.U.’s second-highest court, said that Ferrari had actually put the trademark to use during this period by giving explicit or implied approval to authorized dealers selling the vehicle second-hand and by licensing it out to be used for scale models. Because of this, it did not matter that the name had not been used for a Ferrari model for more than two decades.
“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 stated.
The ruling reinstates Ferrari’s trademark for the Testarossa across cars, parts, and scale models, according to EuroNews. It also establishes precedent for other legacy brands that a trademark can be active even if it is only tied to a vintage product or collectible.
Introduced in 1985, the Testarossa, which translates to “red head” in Italian, is one of the most revered modern-era Ferraris. Not only is the car powered by one of the marque’s trademark V-12s, but it also had a distinctive design that included “cheese grater” side strakes, which made it one of the most popular poster cars of its era. The car was discontinued in 1996, but remains popular to this day, its value having more than doubled since the start of the decade.
