The Swiss Federal Administrative Court upheld the decision by the Swiss IPO to refuse protection for the trade mark BUDDHA BAR for goods and services in connection with music on the grounds that the protection of the sign as trade mark could hurt the religious feelings on Buddhists.

The fact that no Buddhists had complained about the use of the sign did not preclude a finding that it could hurt religious feelings to grant trade mark protection to the sign.

As usual, the applicant argued in vain that similar marks - LITTLE BUDDHA CAFE and BUDDHA-BAR for restauration in class 43 - had been granted protection as recently as 2008. The use of religious symbols, i.e. the names of catholic saints, was common for restaurants but not for musical services, and the registration of religious symbols in class 43 therefore not comparable to the registration of the same sign in classes 9 and 41 (rly?). Pointing out that BUDDHA BAR had been registered in classes 9 and 43 in other jurisdictions did not help, either.

After the recent MADONNA decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, this decision is no big surprise - which is not to say that I believe the practice is correct.

B-438/2010 of 9 December 2010 (link will start PDF download; there are no stable html-links to decisions available since the latest "improvement" of the Administrative Court's decision).