Trademark law Zurich municipal council wants to standardize trademark strategy

The city of Zurich is to present an overall strategy for its trademarks: On Saturday, the municipal council backed a watered-down postulate from the Free Democrats, who criticized an unnecessary "trademark potpourri" and a "Jekami mentality".

Flurin Capaul (FDP) said that almost one hundred trademarks were registered in the name of the city in the trademark register of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. Around 20 law firms are involved. "This gives the impression that anyone in the city who has a good idea can register something."

Protection under trademark law would certainly make sense for Elektrizitätswerk der Stadt Zürich (EWZ), which is in direct market competition in the fiber optic sector, for example, according to his proposal. However, it was not clear why the city should claim trademark rights for terms such as "Art and the City", "Sustainable Real Estate" or "City of Zurich Service Living".

The postulate originally stated that the use of trademarks should therefore be standardized and kept to a minimum. At the request of the AL, the FDP then dropped the restriction.

Moritz Bögli (AL) justified the amendment to the text by saying that standardization was definitely advisable. However, the city must protect names such as "health centers for the elderly" so that other providers cannot use these names and pretend to be the city.

The amended postulate was clearly referred to the city council. However, the majority did not see any great need for action. It was not a "huge problem", said Rahel Habegger (SP). And Ann-Catherine Nabholz (GLP) spoke of a somewhat "bloated problem"; she counted 76 trademarks in the name of the city, of which only 37 are still protected and a third of which are attributable to the EWZ.

SDA