Few vehicles stand for Italy as clearly as the Vespa. Now the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the EUIPO, has confirmed that status: on 22 July 2026 it registered the shape of the Vespa Primavera as a three dimensional trademark. The Piaggio Group announced the decision in Pontedera on 21 September.
What a three dimensional trademark means
A trademark usually protects a name or a logo. A three dimensional trademark goes further, because it protects the shape of a product itself. The condition is that buyers already read the shape as a sign of a particular maker.
That is exactly what the EUIPO found for the Vespa Primavera. The registration covers two-wheel vehicles and scale models, and it rests on the distinctive character that the shape has acquired through use.
On the market since 1946
In its reasoning the office points to the long history of the scooter. The Vespa is, in the words of the EUIPO, “a scooter that has been on the market since 1946”, and its reputation and recognition reach far beyond the borders of the European Union. The General Court of the European Union had already set out a similar principle when it recognised the distinctive character of the shape of the Vespa LX.
The dates add up to a nice detail: in 2026 the Vespa has been on the market for eighty years.
Protection for its evolution too
One point concerning the stylistic development of the range is particularly important. According to the EUIPO, variations do not affect the protection, because the model in the application can be regarded as an evolution of earlier models that have kept their distinctive features.
The ruling ends by noting that the Vespa has been sold for more than seventy years, in the European Union and around the world. That long presence, it says, has turned the Vespa into an icon of the two-wheeler world, one that buyers instantly associate with a single maker. The design has changed over the years, yet its key features and its unmistakable core are unchanged.
From national to European protection
The European registration follows two national ones: the shape of the Vespa Primavera was registered in Italy in February 2024 and in the United Kingdom in November 2025. With the EUIPO decision, protection now applies in all 27 member states of the EU and extends to every stylistic variation that remains faithful to the distinctive core.
The Piaggio Group calls it a crucial recognition. In its view the ruling strengthens the group and gives it the strongest possible tools to defend the familiar silhouette of the Vespa against copies.
A shape you recognise at once
For anyone who links Italy with the sight of a scooter in a narrow lane or along a seafront, the decision is above all a confirmation. The Vespa is not just a vehicle but a shape you recognise at first glance, whatever its colour and whatever its year. Now the European trademark office has put that in writing.
