Martian Chronicles: Gemballa GmbH won a lawsuit over the name of Uwe Gemballa’s son

By Lukas Müller On Jul 26, 2022

The lawsuit between Gemballa GmbH and Marc Philipp Gemballa GmbH ended in victory for Gemballa GmbH, and Marc Philipp Gemballa will be forced to rename his company.

German entrepreneur Uwe Gemballa founded his tuning studio in 1981, then it was called G-Topline Automobiltechnik, but the volume of alterations of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen donor cars was so large that their manufacturers forbade the use of their logos, and then Uwe had to rename company in Gemballa and register it as a full-fledged automaker.

Gemballa became famous primarily as an extreme tuner of Porsche models, in two decades its business became international, but in 2010 a misfortune happened: during a business trip to South Africa, Uwe Gemballa was killed. After that, the company and the rights to the Gemballa trademark passed into the ownership of third-party investors led by Steffen Korbach, who now manages Gemballa GmbH.

Young Mark Philipp Gemballa in front of one of the creations of his father Uwe Gemballa (1997 photo).

Meanwhile, the grown-up son of Uwe Gemballa – Mark Philipp Gemballa (he is now 27 years old) – founded his own company of the same name in 2020, which he positioned as continuing the work of his father. Steffen Korbach decided that the two Gemballas had no place on the market and sued Marc Philipp Gemballa GmbH, alleging that the company was fraudulent and illegally using a trademark.

Mark Philippe Gemballa in front of the Marsien cross-coupe.

This week, Gemballa GmbH issued a press release stating that it has won two court cases against Marc Philipp Gemballa GmbH. First, the District Court of Stuttgart called Gemballa GmbH the sole legal owner of the Gemballa brand and forbade Gemballa Jr. to use it for his company, indicating that if he did not comply with this decision, he would face a fine of 250 thousand euros or arrest.

Mark Philipp filed an appeal with the Cologne Regional Court, but lost here too: the previous court decision remained in force, and Mark Philipp was fined several thousand euros. We add that such litigation is not uncommon in the auto industry – just remember August Horch, who was expelled from his own company, and the litigation around the Spanish brand Hispano Suiza.

The solution is pretty simple: Mark Philipp needs to reduce his company name to MPG and keep going. His debut model Marsien (the name translates as “Martian”) debuted in July this year and was met with great enthusiasm by the public and the press, so the company has good potential.

Marsien

The Marsien is a modern reimagining of the Porsche 959, one of the most famous supercars of the 80s, which was designed with Group B rally in mind and won the 1986 Paris-Dakar marathon. Marsien, like the Porsche 959, has an adjustable suspension. The range of ride height is from 120 to 250 mm. The donor car is a modern Porsche 911 Turbo S, but all of the exterior body panels are new carbon fiber and loosely inspired by the Porsche 959. suede and carbon fiber trim.

Marsien

The stock suspension of the Porsche 911 Turbo S on the Marsien has been replaced with a custom suspension based on KW Automotive components, it is designed for driving both on asphalt and off-road. The stock engine was boosted by the famous tuning studio Ruf: the output increased from 650 hp. and 800 Nm up to 750 hp and 930 Nm, and as an option, an increase in power up to 830 hp is offered. Up to 100 km / h Marsien accelerates in 2.6 seconds, the maximum speed is 330 km / h.

Marc Philippe Gemballa plans to release only 40 copies of Marsien worth 495,000 euros each.

Sketches of the Gemballa hypercar and Avalanche 4×4 cross-coupe.

As for Gemballa GmbH, it has not released anything special in recent years and continues to earn on duty tuning Porsche models, and not the latest, but past generations. However, the ambitions extend beyond this: in 2019, the company announced a completely original mid-engined hypercar, which it promises to introduce in 2022, and in 2020 it published sketches of the Avalanche 4×4 cross-coupe based on the 991 generation Porsche 911 – in fact, this is a direct competitor to Marsien. The premiere of Avalanche 4×4 is also just around the corner, we are waiting for face-to-face and correspondence duels between him and Marsien.