Vespa Tiruan China Dikalahkan Piaggio

Ia mengambil masa yang lama tetapi akhirnya berjaya.

Kumpulan Piaggio yang berpangkalan di Itali akhirnya memenangi kes hak cipta terhadap skuter tiruan Vespa buatan China. Ini bukan kali pertama Kumpulan Piaggio mengambil kes terhadap pengeluar motosikal di China yang berjaya meniru skuter Vespa yang ikonik untuk dijual di China dan juga negara-negara jiran.

Sejak tahun 2010, Piaggio mempunyai masalah dengan pengeluar skuter yang berpangkalan di China, Zhejiang Zhongneng kerana membuat skuter Vespa LX tiruan.

Pada tahun 2010, syarikat China Zhejiang Zhongneng Industry Group memperoleh dari Pejabat Harta Intelek Kesatuan Eropah (EUIPO) pendaftaran reka bentuk Komuniti berikut (‘skuter Zhejiang’) yang digambarkan di bawah.

Pada tahun 2014, Piaggio & C. memfailkan permohonan kepada EUIPO untuk pengisytiharan tidak sah reka bentuk itu, dengan mendakwa bahawa ia tidak mempunyai kebaruan dan watak individu sehubungan dengan reka bentuk ‘Vespa LX’ yang pertama kali tersedia pada tahun 2005 dan menggabungkan garis dan membentuk ciri motosikal terkenal (‘the Vespa’), ikon reka bentuk Itali sejak tahun 1945. Piaggio juga berpendapat bahawa skuter Vespa LX dilindungi di Itali sebagai tanda dagang tiga dimensi yang tidak berdaftar dan di Perancis dan Itali sebagai karya intelektual yang dilindungi hak cipta .

Kenyataan Media

PIAGGIO WINS EU BACKING IN FIGHT AGAINST CHINESE VESPA COPYCATS

The Piaggio Group has announced it has won the backing of the European Union Intellectual Property Office in its fight against the production of what it believes to be a Chinese-made copycat design of its Vespa Primavera.

The Italian company has long fought against companies using the iconic design of the Vespa as a base for its models, with the practice proving particularly rife in the Chinese market.

Matters came to a head during the 2019 EICMA show in Milan when a ‘design registered by a Chinese party’ was removed from the exhibition following a complaint lodged by Piaggio.

Though the company has had middling success when it comes to preventing these facsimile models from reaching the market, the backing from the EU marks a boost for the Italian firm in its fight.

According to the EUIPO invalidity division, it said it was annulling the unnamed model’s 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’.

However, the ruling will likely only mean the model in question will not be permitted for sale in Europe.

Piaggio has been particularly sensitive to the Vespa’s trademarks over the years, launching numerous activities to prevent counterfeiting. The company claims to regularly monitor databases of internationally registered designs and trademarks and has so far managed to cancel ‘more than 50 trademarks registered by third parties in the last two years’