The Swiss Supreme Court, confirming a lower court’s decision, that Swiss courts have jurisdiction to rule on a trademark infringement case against an individual living in the UK who had registered domain names using the Swiss insurance company’s trademarks “SWISS LIFE” and “LA SUISSE”. The registrant claimed as he was living in the UK the Swiss courts had no right to rule since he was living in the UK.The Supreme Court noted it is unclear under present doctrine whether the Swiss courts have jurisdiction over only websites aimed specifically at the Swiss public or any website accessible from Switzerland. The Supreme Court sidestepped this issue holding that in this case the fact that the domain name incorporated the names Suisse and Swiss was sufficient to establish that the websites were aimed at Switzerland. It thus confirmed the lower court’s decision.This decision was originally reported by World Trademark Report, a subscription only site, and Domainnews.com have a report on the decision.http://domainnews.com/litigation/2220070517/swiss-supreme-court-upholds-lower-court-domain-dispute-decision/
http://www.worldtrademarkreport.com//Article/?r=6590 (sub req’d)
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