[alfa] Duetto?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Pratt, commenting on the Starbucks Duetto Visa Card, asks "Didja notice that 'Duetto' is *trademarked*?  Where are the ARDONA lawyers when we *need* them???"
 
D'Amico & Tabucchi write succinctly whatI had long understood to be the case: "it was always familiarly known as the Duetto following a competition organized by Alfa Romeo to find a model name, even though it was never officially baptized as such. The name Duetto never appeared in the official catalogues or price lists where the model was known simply as the Spider 1600." My parts book agrees: calls it the Spider 1600. It is entirely possible that a distributor, such as ARI, may have promoted it as a "Duetto", as easily as they attached model names to various Special Editions, but that would be a different issue. There should be no confusion; the prior model was the Giulia Spider, the following model was the Spider 1750, and the Spider 1600 was the Spider 1600. No Duetto, except in casual use which would not be protected.
 
My understanding was that the Duetto name was never trademarked by Alfa Romeo because there was already a very similar trademarked car name ("Duette", I believe) owned by Saab as well as an identical "Duetto" trademark in Italy for a non-car product, I believe a pasta shape.
 
Cheers
 
John H.
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