What is the legal value of the business sign and what are the legal methods offered to ensure its protection as a distinctive mark of the company? This article will explore the issues related to local pre-use and proper trademark registration strategies.
Index:
- The regulation of business signs and the principle of novelty
- The decision of the Court of Catanzaro
- Conclusions: how to protect a business sign
The regulation of business signs and the principle of novelty
The business sign is one of the main distinctive marks of a business, as it identifies the place where the activity is carried out, whether a physical location (industrial and/or commercial premises) or a virtual one (in which case the sign coincides with the domain name). The Italian Civil Code does not provide a definition of “business sign”, but merely states that the general rules governing the firm (the business name under which an individual or company operates) also apply to it, including the so-called principle of novelty.
According to this principle, the business sign, like the firm, must not be identical or similar to one already used by a competing entrepreneur, and therefore must be sufficiently distinctive to avoid causing confusion among the public.
The decision of the Court of Catanzaro
An important confirmation of these principles came from a recent judgment of the Court of Catanzaro (Judgment No. 1815 of 25 August 2025), which addressed a complex dispute between competing family-run businesses centered on the use of a patronymic within a business sign.
In this case, the Court held that the defendant was legitimately using the contested sign, having acquired it together with the business itself (a fundamental requirement for the valid transfer of both the business name and the sign), and that the sign enjoyed local notoriety.
The Court also applied another significant rule concerning distinctive signs: that of local prior use. It clarified that when a sign previously used has only limited territorial reach, a situation of “duopoly” may arise: the sign (a trademark, in this case) registered at a later date may coexist with the earlier sign, but without nullifying the effectiveness of the prior use.
Conclusions: how to protect a business sign
In conclusion, effectively protecting a business sign (or business name) generally requires filing a trademark application with the assistance of qualified professionals. This helps prevent situations in which a later trademark registration by a third party might override the earlier use of a business sign, whose protection would remain confined to the limits of its prior use.