The Vespa Primavera is one of those scooters that are easily recognizable from afar, and at a glance they are an icon with wheels, an emblem. And when one becomes an emblem, there are others who want to take advantage of the pull and begin to offer similar products.
Piaggio has managed to get the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) to recognize precisely the shape of the Vespa Primavera as a three-dimensional trademark protected in all 27 countries. We are not talking about the name Vespa or its logo, but about the appearance of the scooter itself.
The registration was approved on July 22, 2026, and covers both two-wheeled vehicles and scale models. Piaggio had already obtained similar protections in Italy in February 2024 and in the United Kingdom in November 2025.
Where does inspiration end and the Vespa Primavera clone begin?
That’s precisely what’s complicated. A round headlight, a curved front shield, a rear body with soft shapes or a flat platform do not belong exclusively to Vespa. What is protected is the whole and a silhouette that, after decades on the market, is immediately recognizable.
The EUIPO itself considers that this image has acquired sufficient distinctive character for users to associate it with a specific commercial origin. That gives Piaggio a much stronger tool to act against models that come too close to the Primavera design, at least within the framework of the European Union.
Protection does not require you to keep your aesthetics frozen. Future evolutions may continue to be covered as long as they retain the essential features that make the model recognizable.
Vespa has been on the market since 1946 and that is precisely where the difficulty lies: its influence on the classic design of scooters is enormous. Retro models will continue to exist and there will continue to be inspiration, but from now on it will be necessary to measure much better where one thing ends and the other begins.
