The Mexican food company Bimbo cannot register its trademark “Bimbo QSR” in Switzerland. The Federal Administrative Court confirmed the rejection due to the racist connotations of the term.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Español
es
Multinacional mexicana no puede registrar su marca “Bimbo QSR” en Suiza
Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.
The Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE) justified its rejection with the “deeply derogatory and racist” meaning of the term “bimbo” for dark-skinned people.
More
More
Racism in Switzerland: are we taking it seriously enough?
This content was published on
Last year, there were 327 reported cases of anti-Black racism. Are we doing enough to fight racism? Join the debate on “dialogue”.
In its complaint to the Federal Administrative Court, Grupo Bimbo SAB claimed that Bimbo should be understood according to its meaning “toddler” in the Italian language. In addition, the addition of “QSR” for Quick Service Restaurant means that the word stands in a context that excludes any racist innuendo.
The judges in St. Gallen rejected these arguments in a ruling published on Tuesday. They note that the question is judged based on average understanding. The intention with which the disputed word is used is not relevant.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
Go to war or stay put? Ukrainian men in Switzerland face fresh dilemmas
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
This content was published on
A hacker attack has paralysed the OneLog connection platform, compromising the ability of people to access many Swiss media titles.
Ex-Swiss rail catering boss handed three year jail term for fraud
This content was published on
Former head of Elvetino, the catering unit of Swiss Federal Railways, has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for fraud.
Climeworks signs contract with Morgan Stanley to remove CO2
This content was published on
Climeworks, the specialist in the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) has signed a contract with banking giant Morgan Stanley.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.