Swiss buffet fights against world giants: Burger King etc. Burek King appears in Federal Court

The fact that a small-scale pastry producer in Switzerland was awarded the “King” award has been a problem for Burger King for a long time. Already at the end of 2022, bad things were waiting for the Burek King kiosk operators in Aargau. They informed “Blick” that they had received a mail from Burger King asking them to change their logo. What self-crowned Swiss burek kings neither want to see nor do: “Burger King’s logo has a burger, no crown.”

“Similarities in written and phonetic images”

But it’s not that easy. This is also seen in the decision in this objection procedure recently published by the Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property (IGE). The procedure became necessary because Burger King, whose trademark has been registered in Switzerland since 1999, objected to Burek King, whose trademark was registered at the end of 2021.

Preface: The nature of the burger is well known; Burek is a Balkan-influenced version of Turkish Börek, a spicy-filled dough dish.

Burger King or Burek King – can this cause confusion? Trademark protection experts investigated the optical, onomatopoeic and gastronomic fields. And they looked at it letter by letter. The words “Burger” and “Burek” are “almost the same length”, have the same first syllable “Bur” and the vowel “e” in the last syllable; Also, the vowel sequence “u and e” is the same. As a result, since there is an overlap with the word “King”, this “inevitably leads to similarities in writing and sound.”

Next stop of the fight: St. Gallen

Lawyers for the Burek group argued that there was “weakness in the identification of the old trademark due to dilution.” Their claims: Many similar brands are registered in the Swiss trademark protection register, a total of 25 active brands with “King” and 42 with “Burger” ingredients.

But overall the IGE saw it differently. Preliminary conclusion to the dispute: There can only be one king when it comes to popular gastronomy that focuses on meat and has the prefix “Bur”. Because the two brands are so similar: “There is a risk of misreading and misinterpretation, so misattribution cannot be ruled out,” IGE writes. The rival party, Burger King, “received the majority of their requests, three-quarters of them.”

What the Burek group doesn’t like. “Subject to BVGer” is the latest entry of the Burek King brand. This means that the case is now in St. It becomes legal fodder at the Federal Administrative Court in St. Gallen.