What is a trademark?
John Warchus, partner at Moore Barlow Lawyers said: ‘A trademark is the legal right to use a word, phrase or symbol. It gives the trade mark owner the exclusive right to use it in relation to a class or classes of goods or services.
‘It prevents a third party from using the same or similar mark in relation to the same or similar class of goods or services.’
The Northern Lights are a pretty big selling point for the Scandi country (Picture: Getty Images)
And however outlandish that might sound, British travellers have been caught out by two places having the same name, such as the Liverpool football fans who wound up in Lille, Belgium instead of Lille, France back in 2010.
And 35% of Swedes support the idea of a trademark that will ensure travellers known they’ve found the ‘real deal’, ‘the one where you can catch the Northern Lights, enjoy fika, take home some iconic design and possibly meet a moose or two.’
But there are some people that may have a thing or two to say about this grand plan – in particular, the ‘other’ Swedens.
Visit Sweden claim there are at least 8 other places in the world called Sweden, including more than one town in the USA.
Some of the other Sweden’s are small – or relatively unknown – but the town of Sweden, in upstate New York, is perhaps the second-most well-known Sweden (after the country itself), and roughly about the same size as Barnet, in north London.
They want to help travellers from ending up in the wrong Sweden (Picture: Getty Images)
And while you won’t catch any fjords or forest in this American Sweden, there’s still a thriving community who might have something to say about this potential trademark.
Metro spoke to John Warchus, partner at Moore Barlow Lawyers, who explained what the impact of this trademark would be on the lesser-known Swedens. And the answer is, well, not much.
John said Sweden’s application to the EUIPO only applies inside the EU, so any USA town with the moniker is safe.
However, if another Sweden did exist in Europe, there might be some issues, as the owner of that existing trademark could attempt to block the new application for being too similar.
He said: ‘Any existing owners of the “Sweden” trademark in the EU would in theory be able to block the Swedish government’s later application for it in the same classes of goods or services.
Sweden even has a petition to sign (Picture: Getty Images/500px)
‘If you don’t have a registered trade mark you must make a claim for “passing off” [when an individual or business falsely represents their goods or services as those of another party] which is harder.’
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So, it seems that Sweden could easily go ahead with their trademark – although considering there’s no competitors, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of point, apart from a tongue-in-cheek stunt from Visit Sweden. We do respect their audacity though.
Susanne Anderson, CEO at Visit Sweden said: ‘It’s flattering that others want to be called Sweden, but we’d prefer if there was only one. Our Sweden. The one with the lakes, islands, forests, and the world’s best flat-pack furniture.’
The northern European country is even calling on people around the world to support its application to prevent travel mix-ups by signing their online petition.
Susanne adds: ‘We want everyone to join us, sign the petition, and help travellers discover the one and only, and original, Sweden.’
Grenada or Granada?
Back in 2014, American dentist Edward Gamson, had saved for two years for a trip with his partner to Spain’s Moorish capital, Granada.
The couple settled back on their first-class British Airways flight from Gatwick, dreaming of the Alhambra palace, but soon realised something wasn’t quite right when they looked at the in-flight map.
Nine hours and 4,000 miles from their intended destination later, they found themselves on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean.
Since their tickets did not list the country, airport code or flight duration, Gamson said he did not realise the airline’s mistake until after take-off.
When he complained to BA staff on the ground, he was amazed to discover it wasn’t the first time it had happened. Apparently, one of the ground crew exclaimed: ‘Not another one of these! We had another one of these happen last week.’
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Publish date : 2024-11-11 21:00:00
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