Italian carmaker Ferrari is suing a Danish funeral home that specially designed an urn in the shape of a Ferrari to fulfill the wishes of a young boy who died of cancer, the funeral home told AFP on Friday.
“Ferrari in Italy is claiming that we marketed the urn and that we are misusing the brand … They are suing us for 250,000 kroner (46,000 dollars, 33,500 euros),” the owner of the Begravelses Service funeral home, Carzten Mark, told AFP.
“But we made one single piece of art,” Mark said, insisting that his company did not market the urn.
“It has been seen by me, the family and Ferrari Import Denmark,” he said.
The boy was a big fan of Ferrari sportscars. When he died in 2004, his parents asked the funeral home if it could make an urn in the shape of a Ferrari.
Mark said his company had written Ferrari Import Denmark for permission to design the urn and received a positive reply.
“They were very helpful and even sent us the logo and stickers to use and a written permission. I still have their email in my inbox,” he said.
A Danish television station filmed a report on the funeral home's custom-made urns, mentioning the Ferrari receptacle but not showing it on film. It did however film another urn designed by the same artist bearing the Chanel logo, Mark said.
Ferrari Italy perceived the report as marketing for the funeral home, and sued the four-man company in 2005.
The case is to go to court in Denmark in October.
“I feel terrible about this. We tried to go the extra mile to help this family,” Mark said.
As for his chances of winning the court case, Mark said: “I'm optimistic in many ways but you can never be sure.”
