If you want to register a domain name in the Top Level Domains .ch or .li, you don't have many options. To be more precise: you have exactly one option. You can register with the non-profit organization Switch, which has been entrusted with the registration of domains in the TLD .ch and .li by the Swiss government.

Now, registering a domain name in the TLD .ch is not very expensive - CHF 17 per year (roughly EUR 11). But, running a Domain Name Server is not very expensive, either. Since its inception in 1987, with a founding capital of CHF 90,000, Switch has increased its capital reserves to over CHF 50 million. Not bad for a not-for-profit organisation. Predictably, some users question whether Switch should not rather lower its fees instead of treasuring profits. Oooops, not profits - surpluses. Because it's not for profit, remember.

Instead, Switch now intends to branch out into web hosting. Some competitors have filed a complaint with the Swiss competition authority for abuse of a dominant market position, and obtained at least a preliminary victory before the Commercial Court of Zurich.

News article (in German) here.

So, OHIM is doing something useful with the abundance of cash it generates after all: yesterday, the beta version of TMView, a comprehensive and free search tool for trade marks, went online.

From the OHIM's news release:

A test version of TMview, providing free access to more than 5m trade marks, is available from today. This new service is designed to simultaneously search, free of charge, the databases of existing trade marks held by OHIM, WIPO, and the UK, Czech, Italian, Benelux, Portuguese and Danish IP Offices.

The trade mark information from eight other European IP Offices should be available between the end of 2009 and early 2010 – and more will come at a later stage. The full release of TMview is planned for early 2010, but users can check out a test or "Beta" version immediately.

I haven't had the time to test it thoroughly, but a first look seems very promising. The lack of a similarity search option seems the most glaring omission, and the limited coverage will (at the moment) make it necessary to use other search tools as well. However, once all the European offices participate, this could be really, really useful. Go check it out!

The Italian manufacturer of ovens Unox Srl sought to extend the protection of its UNOX trade mark (used for ovens in class 11) to Switzerland, but didn't reckon with the over-zealous Swiss IPO and Supreme Court (the CTM was registered with the OHIM without problems). The Swiss IPO refused protection because UNOX contains the letters UNO, which are exclusively reserved for the United Nations and may not be registered as a trade mark.

The Federal Adminstrative Court begged to differ. No association was created between the United Nations and the products designated by the trade mark UNOX. Art. 6ter of the Paris Convention only required that the registration of official signs be refused if "of such a nature as to suggest to the public that a connection exists between the organization concerned and the armorial bearings, flags, emblems, abbreviations, and names, or if such use or registration is probably [...] of such a nature as to mislead the public as to the existence of a connection between the user and the organization".

The Supreme Court overruled the decision. Switzerland had not limited the protection of official signs to instances where, by the use of the sign, an association was created between the applicant and the official organisation. Only where the official sign lost all distinctiveness (e.g. "Uno Due Tre") could it be registered. Otherwiese, the ban was absolute.

The decision is a disaster for Unox Srl and other applicants. Firstly, not only cannot Unox Srl register its trade mark in Switzerland, but under the applicable law, the use of official signs - and the Supreme Court just ruled that UNOX was such use - is a criminal offense. In other words, if Unox Srl continues to distribute its ovens under the UNOX brand in Switzerland, it risks prosecution.

Secondly, the list of protected signs is long and keeps growing. Under the first entry "A", it contains the abbreviations ACCOBAMS . ADB . AEA . AEE . AEN . AELE . AELS . AEWA . AFE . AID . AIE . AIEA . AIO . AIPO . ALADI . ALALC . ALALE . ALPENKONVENTION . AMAGE . AMPO . APEC . APPA . ARABSAT . ASCOBANS . ASEAN. If your trade mark contains any of these - even if no assocation whatsoever is created with the international organization is concerned - you risk losing your mark in Switzerland, and worse, criminal sanctions if you continue to use it.

2. Subject to Article 130, the following shall be considered as being devoid of sufficient distinctive character:
(ii) signs which consist exclusively or mainly of elements which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, origin, quality, quantity, value, intended purpose, manufacturing process, composition, function or usefulness of the goods,

The distinctiveness of each trade mark is assessed individually, based on the applicable legal norms and the issue of whether it concerns a pure word mark or a figurative trade mark with a dominant graphics cannot be bypassed, especially if the protection is expected to be granted to words of informational nature.

Legal norms included in article 129(2)(ii) of the IPL prevent situations of depriving the competitors from informing the buyers about the character of goods, by the exclusive use of a registred trade mark. Granting the right of protection to information which serve as a trade mark about a quality of food product, its taste or qualities would lead to ensure a monopoly, or granting the exclusive use of it to only one entrepreneur.