SWITZERLAND: Supreme Court Rejects BIMBO QSR Application for Immorality Reasons

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court refused to grant trademark protection to the Swiss designation of the International Registration (IR) BIMBO QSR of the Mexican company Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. for food products in International Classes 29 and 30 and for related services in International Classes 35 and 43. The ground was immorality (IR no. 1381712; GRUPO BIMBO, S.A.B. DE C.V. v. Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Case 4A_343/2024 (in German)).

The Court reasoned, in a decision published on November 1, 2024, that even though the word “bimbo” means “little boy” in the Italian national language of Switzerland and would therefore be unproblematic, people in the Swiss German–speaking part of Switzerland could perceive it as a negative term for dark-skinned people.

Although this negative meaning of the word “bimbo” is apparently unknown to at least the vast majority of the Swiss population, some sources from Germany, primarily dictionaries, refer to this negative meaning, and the trademark applicant could not show that the word “bimbo” does not have a negative meaning in German-speaking Switzerland.

Moreover, the view of the growing African population in Switzerland is important (the Swiss examiners did not investigate whether this group ascribes a negative meaning to the term BIMBO, but they evidently assumed this). The sensitivities of minorities must be taken into account unless it is a matter of extreme sensitivities of individual members of these minorities.

Furthermore, the addition of QSR, standing for “quick services restaurant,” could not bring about any significant change in meaning. Rather, a BIMBO QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANT would be understood as a restaurant in which dark-skinned waiters would have to serve the guests as gastronomic henchmen, the Court reasoned.

Consequently, Switzerland refused trademark protection for the sign BIMBO QSR due to immorality. The fact that other countries had approved trademark protection for decades did not help the trademark applicant in Switzerland. An originally unproblematic word can acquire an immoral meaning over time due to changes in language or usage. The Swiss trademark authorities showed caution in rejecting trademark protection, with political correctness prevailing.

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