[Foundation-l] Trademarks (Was: A local chapter without Wikimedians)

[Michael Bimmler]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> That's a very useful tool (if rather cryptic in its output), thank
>> you! If I'm reading it right, it looks like "Wikipedia" is registered
>> far more widely.
>
> Actually, on a second glance, it seems to be registered in
> Switzerland, despite Michael's claims otherwise. Michael, what was
> your source for that? (Or did you mean "Wikimedia" when you said
> "Wikipedia"?)

Very interesting, to say the least.
CH is in the list column of (834) entries, and clicking on the 834
gave me "(834): Designations under the Madrid Protocol by virtue of
Article 9sexies"

Now I looked up article 9sexies, which reads as follows:

"Article 9sexies
Safeguard of the Madrid (Stockholm) Agreement
(1) Where, with regard to a given international application or a given
international registration, the
Office of origin is the Office of a State that is party to both this
Protocol and the Madrid (Stockholm)
Agreement, the provisions of this Protocol shall have no effect in the
territory of any other State that is also
party to both this Protocol and the Madrid (Stockholm) Agreement.
(2) The Assembly may, by a three–fourths majority, repeal paragraph
(1), or restrict the scope of
paragraph (1), after the expiry of a period of ten years from the
entry into force of this Protocol, but not
before the expiry of a period of five years from the date on which the
majority of the countries party to the
Madrid (Stockholm) Agreement have become party to this Protocol. In
the vote of the Assembly only those
States which are party to both the said Agreement and this Protocol
shall have the right to participate."

if anyone can tell me, how this relates to whether the mark is now
registered in Switzerland or not, I'd be grateful.

My source was www.swissreg.ch, which is the official query tool of the
Swiss government (and also has an English interface, so you should be
able to use it as well)

I notice now, and I'm sorry for only noticing now, that they do not
include international registrations in this database, I just assumed
they would. Bah.

Well, I'm glad that at least Wikipedia and Wikimedia seem to be
somehow registered in Switzerland, but if anyone of the
trademark-savvies here (or someone with more time to research than I
have right now) can enlighten me on this "(834): Designations under
the Madrid Protocol by virtue of Article 9sexies"-thing, I'd be
grateful.

Michael

--

Michael Bimmler
mbimmler at gmail.com