Who owns the Vatican brand?

Spain, so far, says the pope does

MADRID — 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 permission.

Managers scratched yellow and white — the colours of the Vatican’s flag — from the website, along with the Holy See’s official emblem and a logo that featured Saint Peter’s keys. But the site’s founders are fighting to hold on to the InfoVaticana name and have appealed the Spanish copyright office’s decision.

Founder Gabriel Ariza alleges that the Vatican is engaging in a “political witch-hunt” against his site in retaliation for InfoVaticana.com’s crusade against corruption in the Catholic Church, especially in Spanish religious institutions.

“We have already taken down previous logos and other vestiges that can relate us to the Vatican, but they just want to shut us down,” Ariza said. “It would be like the City of New York denying The New York Times the right to their brand.”

The Vatican rejected Ariza’s claim that InfoVaticana.com was targeted.

“It is not a matter of ideology or freedom of expression, but one of officialdom,” Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said in a written statement. “It is not correct to give the impression that one speaks or asks for donations in the name of the Holy See when it does not correspond to the truth.”

The Vatican has launched hundreds of actions to protest the use of the pope’s image and the Holy See in everything from souvenirs to the marketing materials of foundations and businesses.

A global system has been set up to monitor the way in which the pope’s image, the Vatican coat of arms and the Holy See’s emblems, flags, seals and names are being used. The campaign was launched in 2009, under Pope Benedict XVI, and has continued under Francis.

The Spanish trademark office said there was no deadline for a final decision on InfoVaticana.com’s appeal.