The chain La Mafia se sienta a la mesa has just come into direct conflict with the Italian and Spanish justice systems. After more than a decade of legal wrangling, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) has declared its trademark in Spain null and void, considering it “contrary to public order and morality,” siding with the Italian Republic, which has been denouncing for years that the name trivializes the activity of a real criminal organization. Italy maintains that associating the word “mafia” with a leisure activity in a restaurant is offensive to the victims and uses a bloody reality as a commercial gimmick.
The decision comes after an important precedent in 2018 when the General Court of the European Union invalidated the community trademark La Mafia se sienta a la mesa (The Mafia sits at the table) for the same reason, but that did not affect the national registration, so the chain was able to continue operating normally in Spain and expand to more than 100 locations, seven of them in Madrid, with a turnover of more than €130 million per year. Now, the invalidity also extends to the Spanish trademark, which opens the door for commercial courts to force the company to abandon the name, remove logos, and eliminate any graphic references to the mafia aesthetic of its restaurants.
The Italians’ anger at the trivialization of the word “mafia”
Editorial credit: La Mafia se sienta a la mesa
The Italian embassy had already expressed its discomfort with this type of name on several occasions: not only with La Mafia se sienta a la mesa, but also with other restaurants that refer to the Camorra or criminal organizations in their signs or menus. For Rome, it is not a question of political correctness, but of respect, since the mafia is not a joke or an aesthetic created for the cinema, but a real criminal phenomenon that has left thousands dead and is still active, also in Spain, where organized crime has used restaurants and hotels for years to launder money. Hence, the ambassador spoke openly of an “offensive” and “disturbing” brand.
What will happen now to the chain’s seven restaurants in Madrid? For the time being, they can remain open, but it is likely that, if the commercial courts confirm the OEPM’s decision, the company will be forced to undergo a thorough rebranding: a new name, a new corporate image, and goodbye to a sign that has been on the facades of half of Spain for more than 25 years. The company still has a month to appeal the ruling, and everything indicates that it will do so, because at stake is not only a question of identity, but also the value of a brand built on franchises and campaigns.