Piaggio loses EU legal battle over scooter copyright

In the years-long legal dispute over the vehicle design of the German electric scooter manufacturer Kumpan Electric with the Italian Vespa manufacturer Piaggio has reached an important decision: Vespa’s copyright claim to the scooter’s design was not successful.

The Italian Vespa manufacturer had challenged the EU-copyrighted design of the Kumpan scooter, as it considered, among other things, its trademark, design and copyright rights to the shape design of the well-known Vespa scooters to be infringed by the Kumpan design. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) had already rejected Piaggio’s application in the first instance.

Now, the Board of Appeal of the EUIPO has also rejected the appeal filed by Piaggio in its entirety in its decision of 8 August 2022 (file no. R 1663/2020-3). Piaggio has two months to appeal against this decision to the General Court of the European Union – otherwise, the decision will become final.

ebility.de (PDF, in German)