Heir of legendary Ferrari importer sues to cancel Prancing Horse trademark

The heirs of the man who did more than anyone outside of Enzo Ferrari to make Ferrari a world-renown builder of sports cars have asked a U.S. federal judge to cancel Ferrari's famous trademark for its prancing horse, accusing the company of abusing its power to control sales of classic Ferraris. The lawsuit even involves one of two Ferraris ever built with three seats, a beautiful car to be caught in such an ugly dispute.

Luigi Chinetti was an Italian racer and mechanic who emigrated to the United States before World War II but returned after the war. When his friend Enzo Ferrari mentioned he was thinking of building a machine-tool factory rather than betting his future entirely on cars, it was Chinetti who urged him to focus on race cars. "If you sell six cars for me," Ferrari reportedly told Chinetti, " I will build them."

Chinetti, who had won the 24 Hours of LeMans twice before the war, began racing Ferraris around the world to help establish their reputation, while overseeing the distribution of Ferraris in America. He was at the wheel in 1949 when a Ferrari 166MM won LeMans for the first time; after retiring as a driver, Chinetti's North American Racing Team would rack up many other victories, including the 1965 LeMans, the last won by a Ferrari. Meanwhile, Chinetti would use his connections to boost the racing careers of many drivers, including Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney and Phil Hill.

Even then, relations between Chinetti and Enzo Ferrari were often strained, with both sides suspicious of the other. Chinetti's son, Luigi Chinetti Jr., sued Ferrari last year over the 1949 166 Formula 2 V-12 race car that sits at the front of the Ferrari museum in Modena, Italy. Chinetti claims his father lent it to the museum as a death-bed promise to Enzo Ferrari in 1988; Ferrari claims the car was given by the family and belongs to it. That case will be heard by an arbitrator soon, and could go to trial next year.

But the new lawsuit, also filed by Chinetti Jr., throws a stronger punch at Ferrari -- and involves one of the rarest, most beautiful cars ever built by the company.