Valentino Rossi must have an over inflated ego or he’s hard up for some pocket money or he’s finally feeling the pressure from team mate Jorge Lorenzo or the following story is the result of some over zealous lawyer who wants to protect his client.
According to Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Podrini and Benedetti Law Firm who takes care of the interests of the Italian champion, has warned the organizers of the Mostra Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco (National Show of White Truffles) of Sant’Angelo in Vado (Pesaro) not to continue using the number 46, even if the event has reached it’s 46th year.
The characteristics of their logo to promote the event, even the color yellow is supposedly classic Rossi and the law firm wants to take action against the town municipality.
Settimio Bravo, the mayor of the town has said: “We’re disconcerted about this attitude.
We haven’t copied anything.
We’re celebrating the 46th year of this event and we have to use this number, we couldn’t use 45 plus 1 or 47 minus 1 or do we have to think that Valentino Rossi has bought the number in the entire world and no one can use it.
I’m sorry for the champion, but his lawyers are making him look bad, because this aggressive attitude and the threats of legal action and compensation would hurt us and our show, which has reached its 46th edition, if someone can prove differently the number belongs to everyone.
We’ve even contacted Graziano Rossi, who told us everything was fine, instead one of the lawyer’s called us saying that Rossi’s dad has no decisional power regarding this case and that we have to immediately remove the number 46 from our logo.
We’re going to keep it until the end of the show.
” Updated: The Mayor of Saint’Angelo di Vado has admitted to “being misunderstood” that they had no intention of plagiarizing the #46 trademark or use it as a marketing ruse, but it was done to pay tribute to the World Champion that lives in the nearby Tavullia.
The mayor added that their area is seeped in motorcycle history, and they can boast of having MBA Motorcycles, who won five world titles in the ‘80’s and to show their good faith the they were thinking of awarding Rossi the “Golden Truffle,” the highest honour of their city and they would be honoured and relieved if Rossi could personally come to their town to pick up the award.
This story is ridiculous, but we were wondering if Rossi and Aldo Drudi asked DreamWorks if they could borrow the Donkey from the movie Shrek that graced Rossi’s helmet at Misano?