Modern Vespa

Hey everyone, little off topic as from the usual wrenching questions I have.

A question i have is surrounding our riding clubs.

Apparently a forming club cannot use the name vespa in it unless it has a national affiliation (and that country is aligned with world vespa club)

I've noticed that all "vespa only" clubs are just that and are connected with a national club and are considered chapters of that national club. Where as scooter clubs are non affiliated.

I have yet to come across a non affiliated vespa club.

Are the rumors true that vespa clubs that are not affiliated have been asked to rebrand bc they are "illegally" using the vespa name?
I find that silly.

I've been told that if I wanted to start a club, I couldn't use the vespa name unless I was affiliated with my national club.

Any one here run or a part of a vespa club that is not affiliated with their national club?

Any Intel or thoughts?

Always greatly appreciated.

That's pretty funny.Vespa doesn't even make real Vespas anymore. They make plastic Vietnamese four-stroke twist'n go scooters.

It's probably all true-ish.

I can really only speak to the US on this (and SoCal will hopefully correct me if I get this wrong), but as the trademark owner of "Vespa," if Piaggio doesn't make a minimum effort to control use of the trademark, they can lose control of it from a legal perspective if it becomes a generic/trade name.

Yhe Vespa Club of America (VCOA) seems to be pretty lenient about who can be a member, in terms of what they ride. While most members own and ride some sort of Vespa, I also know that at least some chapters will let basically anyone who wants to ride scooter speeds/routes join, even if they ride a motorcycle rather than a scooter. Maybe they just want to have a little Mods vs. Rockers vibe at every event. I don't know.

I see. Vcoa is such a large national club. Maybe they are more lenient due to it's harder to control or the management just doesn't know or care.

I wonder how the VCOA views social media pages? Are they open? Or closed to members only?

How about rides/events? Paid members only? Or open?

Here in Ukraine we have non-affiliated club.
Here is our FB page and Instagram.
We also use "standard" badge design for our club badge. Nothing can't stop us and no one can stop us from doing what we do and what we love.

I can say more. Near month ago we received email from Marco Manzoli, Vespa World Club manager with and invitation to join Vespa World Club and become official.

We refused. As long as Vespa Club Russia(whom said nothing about war since it begins 2 years ago) is in VWC there is no question of our joining.
Russia is a terrorists state that starts war against Ukraine, killing lots of Ukrainians(more than one of my own friends was killed in this war and friends of friends...etc) and VWC want that our club badge will be showed on the same page with these honorless cowards.
NEVER!

Stand strong, friend!

Any organization that will have the Russians as a member is one that will not have me as a member.

Thanks for support mate!

roland87

Keep strong brother. Stand and speak your truth.
All the best!

I've never joined Vespa Club of Melbourne/Australia, as I'm not an ideal candidate for riding in formation!

Soon you won't be able to use the word Tosser without permission.

All clubs should change their names to Generic Chinese Scooter Club. That will sort them out.

It will be the trademark symbol, not the Italian word Vespa.

As the late, great George Carlin once said, "Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name. Even if you must join, don't participate. It will be your death. And if they tell you that you're not a team player, congratulate them on being observant."