The Naples Court rules on a hamburger trademark.

Naples may be the pizza capital, but recently the specialized division of the Campania regional court was called upon to rule on a hamburger trademark and the distinctiveness of the word “Ham,” which identifies a sandwich franchise chain. The plaintiff, owner of the “Ham Holy Burger” trademark and the corresponding domain name, challenged a competitor’s use of the “Ham” trademark for the sale of meat products via the website “ham-burger.it.”

The defendant argued that the sign was in any case the subject of its own trademark application and that, in any event, the trademark "Ham Holy Burger" was descriptive and therefore weak; furthermore, it contended that there was no likelihood of confusion between the signs.  The Court ruled that the word “Ham” is widely known to the Italian general public—including that segment of the population not familiar with the English language—as it constitutes the first part of the word “hamburger,” a term commonly used in Italian to refer to a pressed beef patty. In other words, for most consumers, the term “ham” would not so much refer to a cut of pork (for those who know English) but rather to the hamburger. Therefore, the “Ham Holy Burger” trademark cannot be granted any protection.