Swisscom and Sunrise lose trademark dispute
Swisscom and Sunrise are in a dispute over their «one» and «inOne» trademarks: Both companies have demanded that trademark protection for the competing product be revoked. The Zurich Commercial Court has now rejected both companies« claims. It ruled that both »one« and »inOne” are words in the public domain. The terms are therefore freely available to all companies.
The two telecommunications companies each created their own brand for their combination offers: Swisscom chose the neologism "inOne," while Sunrise kept it short and called its product "one. Both registered their trademarks, which would henceforth make it impossible for other companies - and the competition - to use these words.
Both Swisscom and Sunrise then took legal action to demand that the trademark protection of the competitor's brand be revoked. Both feared being sued at some point by their rival because the words "one" and "inOne" are mutually exclusive.
Words like "you" and "duo"
The Commercial Court has now put a temporary end to the dispute over words: in a recently published ruling, it decided that neither "one" nor "inOne" can be protected under trademark law.
This is because both terms are words of common use, which are excluded from trademark protection. Examples of other such words are "you" or "duo". These are available to all traders - without having to fear being sued by a company under trademark law.
However, the Commercial Court made one exception: the so-called figurative marks, i.e. the colored logos of "one" and "inOne", remain protected under trademark law. These may therefore not be used by other companies, even if the words used in them are common property. The ruling is not yet legally binding. The appeal period runs until January 27. (SDA)
