Amateur race-car driver and Ferrari SpA aficionado Sammy Wasem has filed a complaint together with his father against the Italian automaker, Bloomberg said. Wasem claimed in his lawsuit that Ferrari has committed copyright infringement as they have lost of their site.
The issue started in 2009 when Ferrari sent an e-mail addressed to Wasem and his father Olivier over the then teenager's success in gaining over 500,000 fans within a year of creating a fan page of the company. Bloomberg said Sammy was 15 years old at the time he created the fan page. However, the celebratory tone of the email turned sour when Ferrari advised the father and son that it will be taking the administration of the fan page from them by force, citing legal issues. Although the Wasems have agreed to make the site an official fan page of the Italian automaker without any written contract, several issues in the administration of the site led them to sue Ferrari.
Bloomberg said the Wasems's lawsuit, which was filed in February 2013 are seeking at least 10 million Swiss francs ($11 million) and had asked the prosecutor to check Facebook's role in the case.
Ferrari's strong-arm approach on the Wasems was unusual today considering the negative publicity the carmaker could get on social media. Bird & Bird in Brussels intellectual property and information technology lawyer and specialist Benoit Van Asbroeck said, "There's a change happening in the behavior of IP lawyers to defend their clients. We now try to be very friendly to avoid an aggressive reaction on the Web."
Citing the Nestle SA case, Greenpeace, who released a YouTube video depicting the food company's palm oil sourcing effects on rain forests, led to Nestle changing its policies on purchasing.
IP lawyer Stijn Debaene at the Brussels office of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP said, "Now each time it's a balancing act: will we go after that or just leave it like that because the risk for negative publicity is too big."
Bloomberg said Ferrari has countered the Wasems in a lawsuit, claiming that they misused the company's trademark for their own advantage, like advertising merchandise not of the Italian carmaker for one.
