translated from Spanish: Ferrari asks a man to remove photos of his own Ferrari for this reason

Italy.- Ferrari doesn’t like what German fashion designer Philipp Plein is doing with his Italian luxury cars, and the news quickly became known. In a series of Instagram posts this week, Plein claims Ferrari is threatening to sue him because he posted images of his sneakers in the chest of his own ferrari. 

Ferrari says Plein’s behavior “tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari brands and causes Ferrari more material damage.” Ferrari’s letter to Plein also says it uses Ferrari trademarks for “promotional purposes” to increase the visibility of its own brand and products.
Again, the cars in the photo are from Plein. Ferrari essentially claims that Plein is taking advantage of its iconic images to reinforce its own brand and also denigrate those of Ferrari.La photo in question has not yet been removed, as well as many others with the cars, even though Ferrari’s lawyers said that would file a lawsuit within two days of receipt of the letter. Plein calls the letter “blackmail,” and has asked his followers to send pictures of their shoes over their luxury cars. He even made a slideshow of what his followers sent. Plein is positioning his fight as more than just his shoe brand and the Italian car manufacturer. “This is a struggle for our right to post on our private social media accounts, whatever we decide (as long as it doesn’t cause anyone any harm),” he writes in his legend.
As for the actual legal case, The Fashion Law reports that Ferrari could build a strong case. “As in the United States, the trademark owner in Italy has the right to prevent third parties from using identical or similar trademarks for identical or similar goods or services,” TFL writes.” Given the positioning of Plein’s footwear in the photo, that is, right next to the Ferrari logos, and with the coordinated colors in mind, consumers might think that the two brands are working collaboratively for Plein’s footwear collection or are otherwise affiliated in some way, which would result in deserved trademark infringement claims.” In a comment to Bloomberg, Carmine Rotondaro, an independent legal adviser to Plein, called Ferrari’s accusations “totally unfounded.”
It is unclear whether Ferrari is carrying out its plans to file the lawsuit, but we have contacted the company for feedback. and will be updated if we receive a response.

Original source in Spanish