Ferrari loses trademark battle: Get ready for a run of 250 GTO replicas

Ferrari has lost a legal battle to trademark the shape of its legendary 250 GTO to Italian car atelier Ares Design. The move overrules an Italian court judgement that protected the GTO as a work of art.

Ares Design is best known for its Panther Progettouno, a DeTomaso Pantera recreation, based on Lamborghini underpinnings. Now, with this landmark ruling, Ares can turn its hand to re-imagining the most expensive car in the world.

Only 39 250 GTOs were built between 1962 and 1964, and in 2018 one sold for an auction record of $48.4 million, so a modern day tribute is sure to be worth a small fortune.

Ares Design argued that Ferrari had not used the shape of the 250 GTO for a continuous five year period, convincing the Cancellation Division of the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

It comes following plans laid out by Ares, in 2018, for a limited run of supercars which were intended to be a modern reinterpretation of the 250 GTO. The company planned to take a Ferrari F12 or 812 Superfast and repackage it with a body design that paid tribute to the most valuable Ferrari of all time. Ares initially suggested that it would build ten modern tributes priced at around $1.3 million. It has yet to confirm whether these plans are still in place.

In a further blow, Ares Design is based in Ferrari’s hometown of Modena, so new replicas would be made on its doorstep. In good news for Ferrari, it has been allowed to keep the trademark for making model cars.

British 4×4 maker Ineos won a similar battle with Land Rover over the shape of its Grenadier off-roader, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Defender.

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