Jägermeister: Cross a Case for the Federal Court
In Switzerland too, Jägermeister is permitted to market its herbal liqueur with the traditional deer logo featuring a cross between the antlers.
«The religious feelings of average Christians» are not violated by the figurative mark, ruled the Swiss Federal Administrative Court this Monday. The combination of the cross with the deer and the halo of rays on the Jägermeister bottle does not depict the Christian symbol «in any hurtful or disrespectful manner.»
In September 2017, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property had denied protection to the Jägermeister logo on the grounds that the depiction featuring the cross could offend the sensibilities of Christians. Jägermeister had lodged an appeal against this decision.
Jägermeister traces its origins back to a vinegar manufacturer founded in 1878 in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, by Wilhelm Mast. The liqueur recipe and the logo have existed since 1934. The logo is an allusion to the legend of Saint Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters, as the company explains on its website.
A radiant cross in the antlers of a deer: the average Christian would likely associate this more with an herbal liqueur than with a religious legend. This is what the Federal Administrative Court determined, ruling that the logo may be registered as a trademark in Switzerland. In doing so, the court ruled against the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, which had feared that religious feelings might be offended. The manufacturer Mast-Jägermeister has been using the logo with the cross in the deer antlers since 1935, the Federal Administrative Court noted. As a result, the religious character of the sign has been superseded.
«Religious Character Overwritten»
Through the company's use of the logo since 1935, the image has undergone a shift in meaning, according to the Federal Administrative Court. «The intensive use has thus overwritten the religious character of the contested sign», writes the court in its ruling.
That other brands also contain religious symbols was demonstrated by the company Mast-Jägermeister in the appeals process. They submitted a register extract of a figurative mark that contains not only the Christian cross but also the Islamic crescent.
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