These Spanish trade mark applications contained, amongst other word elements, the name “Letizia”, written with “z” (the Italian way) instead of with a “c” - such a name is correctly written is Spanish as “Leticia”.

It happens that any Spaniard would automatically associate the uncommon name in Spain “Letizia” with Ms. Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, former conductor of the most viewed TV newscast in Spain but specially known as Her Royal Highness, Lady Letizia, Princess of Asturias, the wife of Felipe de Borbón, the Prince of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne.

Due to the somewhat fancy presence of the letter “z” in the name “Letizia”, the SPTO found that the Spanish public would relate the applications with the Princess of Asturias, who obviously was not the applicant for the refused trade marks.

The case was brought by the applicant for the refused applications to the venue of the High Court of Catalunya. That Court overturned the administrative refusal by the SPTO and ruled that the prohibition set forth in article 9.1 d) of the Trade Mark Act would have been correctly applied if the trade marks consisted only in the name “Letizia”. The Court also found that the presence of other distinctive word elements in the applied trade marks (“DE GIORGI 5 LUNE", “DE GIORGI 5 ROSE" and “DE GIORGI 5 STELLE") avoided risk of confusion.