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CLASS 46


Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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WEDNESDAY, 26 MAY 2010
Free speech : trade mark rights 6:0

 

 

 

 

An interesting case has been decided by the Civil Court of Basel, Switzerland, November last year (but only been published just now).

Critics of "big tobacco" had put up a satirical website mocking the sponsorship of the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament by Davidoff, pointing out that sport and smoking don't mix well  ("using tennis to sell death"). The URL for the website is davideathswissindoors.ch. The logo "Davideath Swiss Indoors" is a clear riff on the official Davidoff Swiss Indoors logo (both pictured above).

Unsurprisingly, Davidoff took offense and sought to obtain a preliminary injunction against further distribution of the disparaging material. And lost.

The court basically argued that the constitutional right to free speech extended to satirical, critical and offensive speech. Unfair competition law could not be used to enjoin criticism, even biting criticism, of (perceived) unethical practices by a trade mark owner (trade mark law did not apply because the site was not commercial in nature; however, the decision does not address this - it appears that Davidoff only relied on unfair competition law, probably anticipating the "non commercial use" defense).

Posted by: Mark Schweizer @ 20.32
Tags: Switzerland, parody, unfair competition law,
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