Glubschi – Leading decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court on the agent’s trademark
November, 21, 2024
Decison of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court of September 17, 2024, BGer 4A_166/2024, 4A_172/2024
The appeal by the group company of the distributor Carletto against Ty International was upheld in full by the Federal Supreme Court. The Federal Supreme Court confirmed that the Glubschi sign is not an agent’s mark. The Glubschi sign was created by the distributor during the contractual cooperation with Ty and was used during this time exclusively to advertise Ty’s contractual products, the “Beanie Boos”. In the landmark decision, the Federal Supreme Court set out in detail the requirements for the existence of an agency mark (E.10.2) and held among other things, that there was no “better entitlement of Ty” to the Glubschi sign and that Ty had no formal (foreign) exclusive rights to the Glubschi marks.