In Italy, a heated controversy is brewing over the Vatican's decision to bill a publisher around $18,000 for using quotes from the Pope in one of their books.  And the Church isn't stopping there--it has announced its intention to enforce its copyright in all the Pope's official statements, including a new encyclical he is expected to issue in a few days. 

Whether the Vatican should charge a 3-4% royalty from "pirates" who dare to quote Church documents is a question I'll leave for others to debate.  But as the Pope himself shows a new designer sensibility with Prada shoes and Gucci glasses,

he might want to think about IP piracy of a far more profitable sort.  I am speaking, of course, of the global trade in knockoffs based on papal bling.

Take, for example, the tradition of a papal ring (Benedict's is pictured above).   The following cover of Lucky show two key dimensions of the Counterfeit Pope Ring Cabal--using the Papal name without royalties, copying designers of more expensive retail Pope Rings--while others go further and claim that such Pope Rings have "mystical" religious power!

And Lucky is far from alone. 

The web abounds
in shops
selling
Vatican and
Papal jewelry.

Now that the Church is asserting is its copyright against those unscrupulous "pirates" who dare to quote its teachings, can we expect a trademark crackdown on counterfeit Catholic bling?