Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has asked Spanish authorities to stop selling a brand of dry-cured ham because he feels the company stole his image for its logo.
The "Pig Demont" brand logo features a pig with a hairstyle and glasses that appears to be similar to Mr Puigdemont’s.
Mr Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso Cuevillas told Spanish television the logo is "offensive" and "phonetically similar to a surname [the brand] is not authorised to use", and that he has challenged the attempt to register it.
Spain's patent office has deferred official registration while it looks into the ordeal, AFP reports.
A businessman named Alberto Gonzalez from the autonomous Spanish community of Andalucia is the owner of the “Pig Demont" brand.
Mr Gonzalez attempted to rebrand his business in December 2017.
He said his business’ new name is an amalgamation of the word "Pig" and "du mont" (French for “mount”).
When put together in French, he said, the name roughly translates to "pig from the mountain".
Mr Gonzalez said he has no plans to re-brand for a second time.
"[Puigdemont] does not have the intellectual property over that haircut, the logo does not reflect his appearance," he told Spainish radio station COPE.
"If he sees himself reflected in the caricature of a pig, that is more his problem than mine."
Mr Gonzalez's company also sells a wine called "Rufian", which shares the surname of Gabriel Rufian, a member of Spain's parliament for the pro-independence party ERC.
Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont speaks during a media conference in Brussels on Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. Source: AAP
Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium last October, was detained in Germany in March after Spain issued a European arrest warrant against him.
Madrid wants to extradite him to Spain to try him on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds for staging an independence referendum in Catalonia in October even though the courts had ruled it unconstitutional.
- With AFP
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