Trade mark law

The nineteenth entry is il titolare del marchio, and the noun inside it invites an English word that points the wrong way. Il titolare is whoever actually holds the thing: il titolare del bar runs the bar, il titolare del conto owns the account, il titolare della cattedra holds the chair. The right is his, and so is the power to enforce it, which is exactly what the sentence in this list says — può vietare l’uso. English built « titular » on the same Latin titulus and then sent it in the opposite direction. A titular head of state has the name and none of the power; a titular bishop holds a see that no longer exists; and the titular character of a novel is merely the one the title happens to mention. So « the titular of the mark » says, to an English ear, either nothing at all or that this person is a figurehead. What the registries write is « the proprietor of the mark ». One root, two careers: Italian kept the title as a claim, English kept it as a label.