In Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. (AVIANCA) v. Avianca, S.L., Chamber I of the Supreme Court held that a registered trade name may be used to prevent the use of a similar corporate name as a trade name, even with respect to different services. The plaintiff (Aerovias) registered its trade name AVIANCA for airline and related services in 1961. The defendant corporation, Avianca, S.L., was registered in the Register of Companies in October 1981, and in October 1984 extended its corporate purpose to cover cleaning services. In Spain, corporate names and trade names are considered to be distinct types of intellectual property and are registered at separate Registries. Although Avianca's trade name application for AVIANCA was rejected by the Trademark Office in July 1987, Avianca, S.L. continued to use its corporate name as a trade name.

When Aerovias instituted legal proceedings against Avianca's use of AVIANCA as a trade name on the basis of its trade name registration, the trial Court decided in favor of Aerovias and, on appeal, the Territorial Court upheld the decision.

Avianca, S.L. then appealed to the Supreme Court which held that, due to the broader use that trade names enjoy in the marketplace, owners of registered trade names may oppose the use of any similar name, including a corporate name, that might be competitive. The Supreme Court further recognized a clear risk of confusion between the services offered by each party because the plaintiff's registered trade name covered all services relating to transportation, and the cleaning services of Avianca, S.L. could possibly extend to the air transport or travel industry. Thus the Court ordered Avianca, S.L. to remove the word AVIANCA from its corporate name.

Although this decision does not constitute a binding precedent under Spanish law, it could carry some weight in future similar cases and demonstrates that companies operating in Spain must be very careful when adopting corporate names and trade names, since they may conflict with other rights.