A book could be written about how often companies like Rolls Royce and Ferrari send out cease-and-desist letters for trademark issues. Lawsuits are a regular occurrence when your name or product wedges into popular culture. But Porsche doesn’t make the news much when it comes to trademark law. Until now. Porsche asked Singer Vehicle Design to pull images of its off-road 911 from its website. 

The issue is the large “Porsche” name emblazoned on the car

It has an issue with the large “Porsche” lettering emblazoned on the car. This past January Singer posted images of its All-Terrain Competitive Study or ACS. It got a lot of attention and was met with critical acclaim. Then last week it was gone from Singer’s site and its Facebook page. 

The suits at Porsche saw it too. They asked Singer to pull all media of the car until it could sit down with Singer and hammer a few things out. It is expected that this would include paying for use of the name-or maybe not to use it for modified cars? We’re spitballing here.

If you’re going to use its brand Porsche has the discretion

Anyway, the standard mumbo jumbo over issues like this is they’re not meant to be angry over the situation. It is just that big companies need to protect their intellectual property. So if you’re going to use its brand Porsche has discretion on whether you can or cannot. And how much it will cost you if it will allow it. 

Porsche told Carscoops they are happy over the enthusiasm its cars create. “They help us to ensure that so many Porsche cars originally built decades ago remain on the road and are still being enjoyed. At the same time, we have a responsibility to out customers to ensure that Porsche products – designed and engineered by us – can be clearly and easily identified. This can range from an individual component or piece of clothing using our name through to whole cars. We do this by allowing only products created or directly licensed by us to carry the Porsche name.”

There are a number of “Porsche” branding on this Porsche

You can see that besides the “Porsche” in red graphics on the ACS there is also the “Porsche” buried in the extended rockers. If Porsche wants those gone then it might be a while before the ACS is back on the Singer website. So we won’t know what Porsche took issue with until the ACS returns to its website. 

The ACS was a collaboration between Singer and rally-guy Richard Tuthill. It is an amalgamation and synthesis of 959 and Safari 911s. Singer took a 964 body and welded all of the seams. Then it stuffed a 450 hp flat Porsche six-cylinder into the engine bay. A five-speed sequential transmission drives the four corners. Singer’s plan is to use this as a prototype for customer-ordered copies. Copies, that is, without Porsche identification.