Swiss army war with watchmaker concludes
The Swiss Army may now register ‘Swiss Military’ as a trademark, after the Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland ruled on the army’s conflict with a watchmaker.
On Friday, February 9, the Federal Court announced its decision (which had been made on January 22) and ended a long-running dispute between the Swiss Army and Montres Charmex.
Charmex registered the ‘Swiss Military’ trademark in 1995 and has used the mark for its watches since then.
The war began in 2012, when the army asked the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) to register the ‘Swiss Military’ mark for Swiss watches. The watchmaker opposed the application in 2013.
The IPI rejected the army’s request for registration, finding that although under Swiss law an official name can only be used by the office or authority it designates, protection doesn’t exist when there are two identical marks which are registered for the same category of goods.
The army appealed against the decision to the Federal Court, which has instructed the office to register the ‘Swiss Military’ brand for the category “timepieces and timepieces of Swiss origin”.
According to a press release from the Swiss Army, the ‘Swiss Military’ mark for watches can now be used only by the government and its licensees.
It added that the decision strengthens the position of Switzerland on “combating violations of federal military brands”.
The court said that since only the army is authorised to use the official logo, the trademark should be entered on the register.
However, the court added that the question of whether Charmex also rightly owns the brand was not the subject of the proceedings.
Frank Burgin, CEO of Charmex, said that for a quarter of a century the Swiss government did not care about the use of the term ‘Swiss Military’ by third parties.
“We registered the trademark, we protected the trademark and we invested in it. The commercial value the trademark now has—to be usurped by the government—was created by us and yet there seemingly won’t be any compensation,” he said.
Charmex allegedly approached the government in 2009 to suggest a licensing deal but, according to Burgin, the government declined.
Burgin said that the court had ruled that the ‘Swiss Military’ mark had not achieved any secondary meaning, ie, that the average consumer would automatically associate the term ‘Swiss Military’ with the Swiss Army rather than with watches.
“We, dealing with consumers worldwide on a daily basis, have learned that this is not true (in fact, in many countries people are surprised to learn Switzerland has an army),” noted Burgin.
Charmex has five brands related to the mark, three of which it currently uses: ‘Charmex of Switzerland’, ‘CX Swiss Military Watch’ and ‘Swiss Military’. The latter accounts for 15% of the watchmaker’s turnover.
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