The Freename Forum

In proceedings under SWITCH's procedural rules for .ch and .li domains, a young Swiss company with very old Austrian roots failed against the holder of the domain meinl.ch, who had registered the domain in 2011.

The Swiss company Julius Meinl AG has been registered in the canton of Graubünden since 2019 and has borne its current name since January 4, 2021. It is a subsidiary of Julius Meinl 1862 GmbH, which was founded in Vienna and is active in the trade of coffee, tea and other foodstuffs. The Swiss company considers its name rights to be infringed by the domain meinl.ch in accordance with Art. 29 ZGB (Swiss Civil Code) and Article 8 PVÜ (Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property). The domain name was registered in February 2011 and has never been used by its owner, Roger Meinl, founder of the Swiss OutLog AG. In the proceedings, he invoked his right to a name under Art. 29 of the Swiss Civil Code and stated that after a long career and in view of his retirement, he wanted to work primarily as a consultant in the coming years and use the meinl.ch domain for this purpose. In August 2024, Julius Meinl AG, as the applicant, had already initiated proceedings before WIPO in accordance with SWITCH's Rules of Procedure for Dispute Resolution Proceedings for “.ch” and “.li” Domain Names (“Rules of Procedure”). In September, the parties agreed on mediation talks, which failed, however. In January 2025, Swiss lawyer Theda König Horowicz was appointed as an expert to decide the dispute.

König Horowicz rejected the applicant's request as there was no infringement of name rights (WIPO procedure no. DCH2024-0006). It found that the applicant is the owner of a trademark right under Swiss law, as its company name contains the element “meinl”. However, the further requirements of § 24 (d) (i) of the Rules of Procedure were not met in favor of the applicant. King Horowicz noted that the domain had already been registered by the respondent in February 2011, while the petitioner's company name was not registered in Switzerland until 2021. However, even if it could have relied on an earlier right, such as that of its parent company in Austria, “its request for the transfer of the disputed domain name would probably have been forfeited”. The domain contains the opponent's surname, which means that he has an interest worthy of protection. King Horowicz was unable to find any indications of a risk of confusion in the file: the domain was not being used and it was not apparent that unauthorized use was to be expected. The file rather shows that the applicant trades in food products and that the opponent offers consultancy services. König Horowicz was unable to establish a clear infringement of a trademark right of the applicant, which is why it dismissed the application.

The UDRP decision on the domain meinl.ch can be found at:
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/dec ... 4-0006.pdf

SWITCH's rules of procedure for dispute resolution proceedings for “.ch” and “.li” domain names can be found at:
https://www.nic.ch/de/terms/disputes/ru ... procedure/