Ferrari Wins Suit Against Mansory Over Copycat FXX-K Design

• Ferrari successfully sued Mansory.
• The Italian automaker claimed Mansory copied some of its design elements.
• We're surprised it took Ferrari this long.

If you're not familiar with Mansory, that might actually be a good thing for your eyes (and your sanity). The German tuning company is famous (actually, infamous) for the body kits it slaps onto all kinds of supercars, from Ferraris to Lamborghinis. Heck, not even Rolls-Royce is safe from the tuning company's work that usually looks rather garish to my eyes.

Now it looks like Ferrari finally had enough, too. The Prancing Horse recently sued Mansory over its Siracusa body kit for the 488 GTB and won the case in the European Union Court of Justice on copyright infringement claims. What that means is Ferrari sued, essentially, because it believes the Siracusa looks too much like the brand's own FXX-K, a track-only hypercar that was sold in extremely limited numbers. Reuters reported that the court ruled that a part of a car can be considered a component of design (though unregistered) if it is "a visible section of the product or complex product, clearly defined by particular lines, contours, colors, shapes, or texture." If you look at the two cars side by side, it's not hard to see where Ferrari was coming from.

While it does have a reputation for firing off cease-and-desist letters with more frequency than crooked card games in Hollywood Westerns, Ferrari clearly had a strong case this time. The Siracusa has design elements that were inspired by the FXX-K, specifically the fins at the back of the car, the stripe down the side of the car that perfectly matches a curve found in the FXX-K's bodywork, and the "V" shape in the FXX-K's hood. Ferrari isn't the type of brand that's going to let a copycat design slide, and it's gone to greater lengths than this to protect its brand in the past.

Edmunds says

This will either make Mansory more bullish with its next offerings or it'll finally see the light and back down a bit, and we're praying to the automotive gods it's the latter.