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SWITZERLAND


PROTECTING TRADEMARKS ON THE INTERNET: WIPO WADES IN


Jürg Burger Badertscher Rechtsanwälte


In 2001, the assembly of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the general assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the Joint Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of Marks and Other Industrial Property rights in Signs on the Internet.


In 2010, WIPO’s Standing Committee on the Law of Trademark, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) requested that the WIPO secretariat examine the joint recommendation with a view to determining, in particular, whether the new ways in which trademarks can be used on the Internet are adequately addressed by this instrument. T e secretariat presented an overview of the content and the scope of the application of the joint recommendation, as well as a preliminary analysis of whether those issues could be addressed through the principles set forth in the joint recommendation, in Switzerland in 2011.


Purpose and scope of application


T e provisions of the joint recommendation aim to provide a clear legal framework for trademark owners and holders of other types of intellectual property rights that wish to use their marks on the Internet and to participate in the development of electronic commerce. T e provisions are intended to facilitate the application of existing laws relating to marks, and other industrial property rights in signs, on the Internet, and to be applied in the context of:


• Determining whether, under applicable law, use of a sign on the Internet has contributed to the acquisition, maintenance or infringement of a mark or other industrial property right in the mark, or whether the use constitutes an act of unfair competition;


• Enabling owners of confl icting rights in identical or similar signs to use these signs concurrently on the Internet; and


• Determining remedies. 228 World Intellectual Property Review e-Digest 2012


T e joint recommendation does not: • Establish a self-contained trademark regime for the Internet;


• Address the question of the determination of the applicable law, which is leſt to the private international laws of individual states;


• Apply in a purely non-commercial context; or


• Attempt to re-territorialise the Internet by imposing unreasonably burdensome obligations on those that use signs on the Internet.


Content T e joint recommendation is divided into six parts and covers four main topics:


Linking the use of a sign on the Internet to a particular state or territory (part 2)


T e use of a sign on the Internet will constitute use in a state only if the use has a commercial eff ect in that state. Factors that may be considered by the competent authority include, inter alia, (i) whether the user of the sign is doing or planning to do business in the state in relation to goods or services that are identical or similar to those for which the sign is used on the Internet; (ii) the level and character of the commercial activity of the user in relation to the state; (iii) the connection of an off er of goods or services on the Internet with the state; (iv) the connection of the manner of use of the sign on the Internet with the state; and (v) the relation of the use of the sign on the Internet to a right for that sign in the state.


Determining whether use of a sign on the Internet has contributed to the acquisition, maintenance or infringement of a mark, or whether such use constitutes an act of unfair competition (parts 3 and 4)


T e joint recommendation suggests that, in determining the protection of rights for marks and other signs, states take into consideration situations that might appear unusual if they are compared with offl ine uses, such


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