Piaggio Group unleashed the Guardia di Finanza – an Italian military police corps responsible for financial law enforcement – to confiscate scooters showcased by seven different Chinese exhibitors at EICMA Milan, on the grounds that their design imitated Vespa styling.
Armed Guardia di Finanza officers seized the scooters after determining that they were in breach of a three-dimensional trademark registered by Piaggio, which defines the characteristic shape of the Vespa. The company said this trademark plays a fundamental role in safeguarding the Vespa’s iconic, distinctive and unique design and protecting its industrial property rights.
Earlier this year, Piaggio won a destruction order from a French court for a number of scooters seized in similar circumstances by France’s Gendarmerie Nationale at the Salon de la Moto exhibition in Paris.
Â