The owner of a small beauty salon in Paranoá, a satellite city of Brasília, was forced to replace the company’s name and facade at the risk of paying a R$50,000 indemnity to the automaker Ferrari. He says that the Italian billionaire specializing in luxury sports cars was uncomfortable having the name of the establishment associated with her brand.
The notification was sent by the law firm Ariboni Fabbri & Schmidt, which represents the automaker in Brazil. In the document, the lawyers claimed that the reproduction of Ferrari’s name and visual identity, as an attempt to associate itself with the automaker, characterizes bad faith.
wanted by Sheetthe São Paulo law firm said it would not comment on Ferrari’s guidance.
Owner of the Ferrari Cabeleireiros e Esmalteria salon, entrepreneur Sebastião Dias, 46, said he was startled when he and his wife opened the notification on May 25. In the beauty business for 20 years, he said he bought the establishment 19 years ago. At the time, the space already operated under the same name and the entrepreneur decided to keep it.
“When I read the letter, the day ended for me. It was as if my world had fallen,” Dias recalls. He said he was concerned about a part of the notification that cites the crime of trademark registration, and that provides for detention from three months to a year, or payment of a fine. “At the time, my biggest fear was being arrested. I’m a worker and I’ve never done anything wrong. Imagine being arrested for working.”
The notification said that the businessman had five days after receipt to change the trade name and trade name of the salon that he sent to the Italian automaker. They would also need to replace any visual identity that alluded to the brand.
After opening the correspondence, Dias sought out a lawyer specializing in trademarks and patents who attested to the veracity of the notification and suggested that he meet the multinational’s requirements if he did not want to be sued.
“This was one of the facts that left me the most depressed. I wouldn’t have R$50,000 to pay them, nor the R$10,000 to pay the lawyers.” In addition to the payment of moral damages, the businessman would have to bear material damages to be calculated and legal fees, “fixed only for the purpose of amicable resolution in the amount of R$ 10 thousand”, as stated in the notification.
After submitting the documentation with the change in the company’s registration and the change of the facade, the businessman received a new notice from the São Paulo office, this time on June 3, giving him 75 hours to delete the images alluding to Ferrari. on the social networks. In all, the salon’s owner said he had deleted more than 3,000 photos from Google and the Facebook page.
In all, Sebastião said he spent R$12,000 to meet the requirements. Most of it is paid by credit card. “I never imagined this could happen. It was very sudden. We’ve just come out of a pandemic. We’ve been standing still for a long time paying rent and when we think it’s going to get better it happens.”
The businessman was advised by the lawyer and by Sebrae of the Federal District to wait for a return from the São Paulo office, and says he still does not know whether or not he will be obliged to pay the indemnity and legal fees. “Today, if I have to pay R$5,000, I would have nowhere to get the money. It’s a very difficult situation.”
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