Category: Intellectual Property
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Registering a sneaker as a trademark: decorative element and distinctive feature
On December 4, 2025, the Federal Administrative Court, in its ruling B-447/2025, upheld the refusal to register a position mark affixed to the side of a sneaker, as shown below: According to the Court, the graphic element in question was merely a decorative element commonly used in the industry and therefore lacked inherent distinctiveness. I…
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Recommended in trademark law: 2026 edition of WTR1000 (World Trademark Review)
I am delighted to have been recommended alongside my partner Anne-Virginie La Spada in the 2026 edition of the WTR1000 (World Trademark Review 1000), the global reference guide to the best trademark lawyers. This international distinction recognizes our expertise in trademark law, intellectual property, and intangible asset protection strategy, as well as our support for…
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The EU General Court rules on the concept of “advertising services” in the Airbnb case (T-1032/23)
On May 21, 2025, the EU General Court handed down an interesting ruling on the notion of “advertising services” as a basis for validating the use of a trademark in class 35. I. Facts II. Decision The EU General Court dismissed Airbnb’s appeal on the basis of the following considerations: III. Comments This ruling is…
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Copyright and Artificial Intelligence : Part 3 -Generative AI Training
I. Introduction: US Copyright Office “pre-publication” of Part 3 In May 2025, the US Copyright Office released a “pre-publication version” of the third part of its overall report related to copyright and artificial intelligence. This rather unusual reference to a “pre-publication version” may be seen (or not…) as a sign of an anticipated dissatisfaction from…
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Copyrights and artificial intelligence: referral to the ECJ on large language models| Intellectual property lawyer
The emergence of large-scale language models (LLMs) is accompanied by a number of legal uncertainties, particularly with regard to copyright. These systems, which are based on the massive analysis of online content, raise the question of the legality of training and partial reproduction of protected content. As a Swiss lawyer specializing in intellectual property, digital…
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Timestamping via Blockchain Recognized as Judicial Evidence: A New Era for Digital Intellectual Property
On March 20, 2025, the Judicial Court of Marseille issued a particularly noteworthy decision regarding digital evidence: it recognized that timestamping via blockchain constitutes valid proof of the anteriority and ownership of copyright. This ruling is part of a growing movement toward recognizing blockchain as a probative tool in the field of intellectual property—an increasingly…
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Artificial Intelligence and copyrights: a report from the EU Presidency
On December 20, 2024, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union published a summary of the Member States’ responses to a policy questionnaire on the relationship between GenAI and copyright. Although the contributions of certain Member States may sometimes be second-guessed, they are regretfully not identified. The document nevertheless provides useful insights as…
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Bimbo: a trademark considered to be against public order
On 7 May 2024, the Federal Administrative Court ruled in decision B-4934/2023 that the word “Bimbo” was against the Swiss public order and, as such, could not be registered as a trademark insofar as it contravened art. 2 lit. d of the Trademark Law. While an appeal in front of the Federal Supreme Court is…
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ECJ, 20 June 2024, C-135/23
The fact that a landlord offers his tenants television sets equipped with an internal antenna which makes it possible, without any other means, to receive a signal to broadcast television broadcastings constitutes a communication to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29. The question remains whether that communication is made to…