What information about the holder of the trademark is public?

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.

Your trademark is the face your brand. Trademark registration helps your customers to identify the goods and services you offer and differentiate them from the ones offered by your competitors. It is then essential to make sure that your trademark is distinct and recognisable enough to represent your brand.

The Federal Supreme Court ruled that the gold-coloured foil-wrapped chocolate bunny from Lindt & Sprüngli can claim trademark protection against the competing product from Lidl. Lidl is no longer allowed to sell its rabbit because of the risk of confusion and must destroy existing copies of the product.