The Court of Bologna, Section specialized in business matters, has recently added the protection of copyright to the model of Ferrari, perhaps the best known and most appreciated ever: the 250 GTO.
The number, 250, stands for the displacement of each cylinder in cubic centimetres of the V12 3000 cc engine displacement. GTO stands for "Gran Turismo Omologata". This acronym will not be used for several years until the presentation in 1984 of the Ferrari 288 GTO.
According to the Court, "the personalization of the lines and aesthetic elements have made the Ferrari 250GTO a unique example of its kind, a true automotive icon". "Its artistic value has found objective and generalized recognition in numerous awards and official certificates", in "copious publications" and in the "artistic" reproduction on coins and in the form of "sculptures", periodically exhibited in museums.
The Court has thus issued an order prohibiting the defendant to reproduce the form of the 250 GTO in rendering and in car models.
The resistant company was in fact ready to launch on the market a dozen replicas of the 250 GTO, at a price of about 1 million euros each, which reproduced the legendary model of the '60s.