Bubble Hits, which is owned by Irish entrepreneurs James Hyland and Lee Walsh, took the action after media reports suggested that RTE planned to launch a youth station called Bubble later this year.

"We sent them a letter stating that we own the Bubble trademark for music broadcasting and that their plans would also cause confusion in the market, " said Hyland.

Bubble Hits was bewildered by the fact that RTE even considered using the same name as their station. "We've been in the press every day of the week since last March so what the hell were they doing?"

An RTE spokeswoman confirmed that the station had considered using the name Bubble "at the very early stages" of planning its new digital radio service. She said, however, that it had never been an official name for any of the six planned stations."It arose from speculation on the name in one inaccurate media report, " she said.

RTE has yet to set an official launch date for its digital radio service.