Italian Government Says Carmaker Can’t Make Its “Milano” Vehicle Outside Of Italy
from the pole-position dept
There seems to be something rather specific when it comes to the current Italian government when it comes to strong-arming commerce over a protective stance on Italian cultural touchstones. This has traditionally expressed itself mostly in the food and drinks categories of commerce. Wines are particularly of note here, with several recent examples of Italy and companies within it taking a very draconian view of what trademark laws allow it to do. But so too has the government been very protective when it comes to other products, such as cheeses and the like.
But I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting the Italian government to start a fight with a car manufacturer branding one of its cars “Milano” simply because the cars aren’t made in Milan.
Stellantis-owned Alfa Romeo, a brand steeped in Italian automotive history, unveiled on Wednesday its new Milano small SUV, named after the iconic northern Italian city of Milan, where Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910. The car is being built at the Tychy plant in Poland, and is the first Alfa Romeo model entirely produced outside Italy.
“A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law,” Adolfo Urso said in Turin, referring to 2003 legislation that targets “Italian sounding” products that falsely claim to be Italian. “This law stipulates that you cannot give indications that mislead consumers. So a car called Milano must be produced in Italy. Otherwise, it gives a misleading indication which is not allowed under Italian law,” Urso said.
Let’s be very clear about what is going on here, because it has nothing to do with the public being misled. The Italian government and Alfa Romeo have been in an ongoing and fairly public battle about job creation within the country and over where the company is making its cars. In other words, it is plainly obvious that the government is trying to deploy this angle of the brand name violating Italian law purely as a pain-tactic as part of of that battle.
Because the fact is that the law being referenced here is all about public confusion, as any good trademark law should be. And nobody is going to convince me that simply by having a name that is an homage to the carmaker’s Italian heritage is somehow the same as positioning that the cars are made in Italy.
The law mentioned by Urso says it is illegal to present a foreign-made product as coming from Italy. Typically, it has been invoked against food products, for example U.S.-made “parmesan” cheese resembling Italy’s “parmigiano”.
To be clear, there haven’t been any other accusations I can find that the company is “presenting” the car as being made in Italy beyond the brand name. And for any sane trademark law and/or ruling, that simply isn’t enough to constitute trademark infringement.
But Italy is going through it’s own nationalistic push. In situations like this, the equitable enforcement of reasonable laws often times goes out the window.
Filed Under: geographical indicators, italy, milan, milano
Companies: alfa romeo, stellantis
Comments on “Italian Government Says Carmaker Can’t Make Its “Milano” Vehicle Outside Of Italy”
lmao, denomination of controlled origin for cars. You go, Italy!
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AC, the word is designation, not denomination. D’oh!
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denominazione_di_origine_controllata
Thank you for playing.
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AC showing they don’t understand what the ‘D’ in ‘PDO’ stands for. Thank you for playing.
You can call it a Milano if it’s made in Italy. If it’s made anywhere else, it’s just a Sparkling Automobile.
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Or a Pepperidge Farm sandwich cookie.
can’t wait to see where Chevy builds Tahoe SUVs!!
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Meanwhile, the Italian government said nothing about the Ferrari California.
Re: Chevy Tahoe
Factory at the bottom of a lake! Workers snorkel to work!
I don’t want to hear that any of you have snitched on Pepperidge Farms!
Re: Snitches get cookies! Er, stitches!
I wouldn’t do that! They REMEMBER!
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They doubled down, when they found out.
London Fog Milano Cookies…
link
I figured they were all built by Alyssa Milano.
If your ilyssa Milano you can only act in Italian made films
The Italian government has laws on Italian relics and statues which ignore fair use and make it illegal to punish photos with getting
permisdion
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That’s because they don’t have fair use in Italy (that’s a US thing), but rather fair dealing, which can be extremely restrictive on how much of a Public Domain work you’re allowed to copy.* This is because when you have a private copy of Michelangelo’s David or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, for example, that eats into the market for the professionally produced images sold by the various organizations in charge of these works.**
*A work being in the Public Domain actually means anyone can freely copy all of the work because it belongs to the public, but the Italian government is clearly ignorant of such facts.
**A bullshit hypothesis, in other words.
Re: Re: No, Italy does not have fair dealing
No. Italy doesn’t have fair dealing either.
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Most European countries do have fair dealing, and I incorrectly assumed they all did. Sorry.
Aren’t there Milano cookies, too? Are the Italians afraid of ELVES?
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As mentioned above, those are by Pepperidge Farm.
https://www.pepperidgefarm.com/product/milano-milk-chocolate-cookies
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And I bet they aren’t made at Pepperidge Farm either.
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Also, Pepperidge Farm isn’t a farm, the nonexistent farm isn’t in Pepperidge, there’s no ridge, and no peppers on it. The world is made of lies will They stop at nothing?!
Re: Re: Re:2 Cookies?
It’s not lies.
It’s marketing and politics.
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*whooooooosh!*
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Seems a little redundant. You said “lies” three times.
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I highly doubt that this is theys fault
These laws were stupid even when it came to food, but you could at least argue that the local soil or whatever made the food taste different if it was made somewhere else.
When it comes to cars, there’s no justification. Nothing will make a car made in Italy inherently better than a car made in Poland.
The manufacturer should not be able to lie about where the car is made, of course, but they don’t seem to be doing that.
Introducing the Alfa Romeo Gdnask.
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That might actually improve their reputation.
I remember the Alfas as being the cars described on top gear as being
“Nice cars for a short time”
Then they break dowm.
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I think you’ll find that’s the Alfa Romeo Gdansk.
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And all along, it could have been Alfa Romeo Gdnight.
Re: Re: Real names
Then it should be called the Alfa Romeo Danzig.
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Hopefully, Glenn won’t mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Danzig
We have some popular dishes here that are made “a parmegiana” and “a milanesa” but they aren’t made in Parma or Milano. Well have to start calling them “breaded” and “breaded with cheese and tomato sauce covering”. Doesn’t quite ring right to me. Come on Italy…
The best part is this catty response
I loved the press release in response: “Despite Alfa Romeo believing that the name meets all legal requirements, and that there are issues much more important than the name of a new car, Alfa Romeo has decided to change it from Milano to Junior in the spirit of promoting mutual understanding…The Alfa Romeo team would like to thank the public for the positive feedback, the Italian dealer network for their support, journalists for the enormous media attention given to the new car and the Italian government for the free publicity brought on by this debate.”
Alfa
I’m a little surprised you didn’t mention the Ministry behind this. It’s officially called (in a mix of italian and english): Ministerio delle Imprese et del Made in Italy – and not Ministerio delle Imprese et del Prodotto in Italia, as one would expect.
Question: If US-made parmesan is sold in the US and not Italy, how does it violate Italian law?
Re: American Parmesan
The EU has pushed their AOC/”geographic copyright” system has part of their bilateral trade agreements.
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At the moment, your premise is wrong. A US-made parmesan sold in the US as a “parmesan” is okay, but selling the same product as a “parmesan” in the European Union is illegal.
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Original comment: “If US-made parmesan is sold in the US and not Italy…”
How to say you lack reading comprehension without saying you lack reading comprehension?
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Parmesan is a legally defined term, like champagne can’t be made in Italy, but Prosecco is, and you can make it in Poland if you call it something else.
If it doesn’t matter call it the “Tychyo” in Italy…
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Well to be honest what is made in the states has very little resemblance to parmesan or actual cheese.
Cellulose powder aka wood dust.
It also happens to be the primary ingredient in playdough/superdough.
I plan on building a car and calling it Uranus.
Made In Italy Technically
Manufacture 99.9% of it elsewhere, then send the vehicles to Milan where they perform the final step of affixing the windshield wipers, and then tell the Italian government to go pound sand.
Fiat. Fix it again Toni
.it’s unlikely this case would stand up in court if they wished to enforce Milano as a commercial trademark .the Italian government takes a very strict stance re copyrights on works of art that were made in Italy even if they are hundreds of years old
They are probably more concerned about the car as Alfa Romeo is known às an Italian company
shoes
My Birkenstocks are the Milano style. Will my feet face a takedown demand?
One of the meatless offerings at PrimoHoagies is, yes, the Milano.
https://www.primohoagies.com/meatless-hoagies
So Italy is banned ALL non-italian products from ever being manufactured inside Italy right? that would only be fair? right?
Dropping knowledge
This is a curious one, much unmentioned history.
For half dozen years Alfa sold a car here in NA as the Milano. Sold a lot of them, the 75. This was before Fix It Again Tony bought Alfa. They were in fact made in Milan tho, or close enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1987_AR_Milano_QV_3.0,_vb.jpg
Wasn’t a particularly effective touring race car, won a few Giros, but sold 375k which isn’t bad for a small Italian marque.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_75