It’s safe to say that when the owners of La Mafia Se Sienta A La Mesa (Spanish for ‘The Mafia Sits at the Table’) named their restaurant, they were probably betting on the shock value of referencing one of the world’s most notorious crime organisations. What they didn’t consider was an entire country coming after them for it.
In 2018, the EU Intellectual Property Office ruled that the name of the Spanish restaurant chain was invalid because it conveyed a “globally positive image” of the mafia, after Italy filed a complaint about it. Earlier this year, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office also ruled in favour of Italy, ordering the restaurant to either appeal the decision or change its name.
In its defence, the restaurant chain argued that it had taken its name from a recipe book rather than the notorious criminal organisation, and that the word mafia had become a cultural phenomenon no longer exclusively associated with organised crime. It’s hard to argue with that, considering there are thousands of businesses, music groups, and songs that use the word “mafia”, but the Spanish authorities ruled against the restaurant.
“The controversial name runs counter to both public order and morality. The main name directly reproduces the name of a real criminal organisation, whose activity is not a remote or merely literary phenomenon, but a persistent reality,” the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office wrote in its ruling. “As Italy notes, the most common crimes of said organisation are, among other things, the smuggling of drugs and weapons, organised crime, piracy, money laundering, corruption of public officials and murders.”
The restaurant chain called the decision “unprecedented in Spain” and told reporters that it was considering filing an appeal. A spokesperson added that the company had attempted to discuss the issue with Italy, but had never really had the opportunity to do so.
La Mafia Se Sienta A La Mesa currently operates nearly 100 locations and employs around 2,500 people.
