Source: Associated Press
By ARITZ PARRA
MADRID (AP) — A Vatican crackdown on the commercial use of its name and official emblems has encountered resistance from a Spanish website that refuses to give up referencing the seat of the Catholic Church in its masthead.
The case against InfoVaticana.com, one of hundreds of copyright actions taken by the church, is part of a broader legal debate over whether the Holy See can claim full ownership of the “Vatican” brand and its derivatives.
So far, Spain’s trademark office has taken the Vatican’s side. It ruled in September that the privately run website, which publishes articles about religion in Spanish and Italian, can’t register as a brand because that would mislead readers into thinking it was tied to the Holy See.
The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office also concluded that InfoVaticana.com’s designers had used copyrighted symbols and emblems without the copyright owner’s permission.
Categories: Europe, Pope, Spain, The Muslim Times, Vatican