WEF wins trademark dispute in court against ex-employee
The event "Zurich Economic Impulse" was originally supposed to be called "Zurich Economic Forum." The World Economic Forum (WEF) has now prevailed in the Federal Administrative Court.
Corine Blesi, a former employee of the WEF, is the organizer of the annual Zurich Econimic Impulse. To give the event more reach, Blesi actually wanted to call it the Zurich Economic Forum. As Schweiz am Wochenende writes, she registered the brand with the Institute for Intellectual Property in 2016.
The similarity and similarity was a thorn in the side of the WEF. The lawyers of the Davos World Economic Forum intervened and won after a three-year legal dispute before the Federal Administrative Court. The Zurich Economic Forum trademark was deleted from the trademark register.
In Blesi's view, the WEF trademark was too "banal" for a legal claim, as it consisted of general terms. An argument that brought her an interim victory in 2018: she was granted trademark protection for the Zurich Economic Forum by the Institute of Intellectual Property. However, the WEF did not let up and went to court. The risk of confusion was too great - especially if the event were to move from Davos to Zurich one day.
There is a third player in the Economic Forum brand world: the Swiss Economic Forum. This was founded in 1998 and even has certain similarities with the WEF in its logo design (curved semicircle). According to Schweiz am Wochenende, there is one main reason why it is "spared" by the WEF: the world-famous Davos Economic Forum only had its brand protected in 2012. In addition, WEF founder Klaus Schwab has a good relationship with the Swiss Economic Forum and is even appearing there as a speaker next week.
