Sources:
- "Piratenbekämpfer als Freibeuter" (Pirate fighters as filibusters).
inside-it.ch, April 21, 2006
<http://www.inside-it.ch/frontend/insideit?&site=ii&_d=_article&news.id=6809>
- Judgment by the first civil section of the Swiss Federal Court on BSA
Business Software Alliance Inc v BSA Bund Schweizer Architekten, Jan.
12, 2006 (in German)
<http://relevancy.bger.ch/cgi-bin/AZA/JumpCGI?id=12.01.2006_4C.360/2005>
BSA Bund Schweizer Architekten, the federation of Swiss architects, was
created in 1908. In 1998, BSA Business Software opened a branch in
Switzerland and grabbed the bsa.ch domain name. The architects' BSA
objected, in particular when the pirate-hunting BSA launched a
"Schonfrist Kampagne" ("period of grace campaign" for retroactive
software legalization) aimed at all Swiss architects' studios in 2003.
On Juli 11, 2003, Architects' BSA sued pirate-fighting BSA.
On Jan 24, 2005, the Zurich district court ordered the pirate-fighting
BSA to stop using its acronym without its full name. Pirate-fighting BSA
appealed to the Zurich cantonal court.
On Sept. 2, 2005, the cantonal court confirmed the judgment of the
district court. Pirate-fighting BSA appealed to the Swiss federal court.
On Jan. 12, 2006, the federal court confirmed the judgment of the Zurich
cantonal court, specifying moreover that pirate-fighting BSA must stop
using the bsa.ch domain name.
Pirate-fighting BSA did try to argue that BSA is a common acronym ("Boy
Scouts of America", for instance), and that software and architecture
being different trades, no confusion could arise that would harm the
commercial interests of the architects' BSA. But the architects' BSA
retorted that if people landed by mistake on the pirate-hunters' site
when they wanted the architects' federation site, this would indeed harm
the architects' federation good name, due to the aggressive
pirate-fighters' "Period of grace campaign". And the court found the
architects' argument valid.
Does anyone know a top-brass at the Boy Scouts of America?
Claude
Claude Almansi
Castione, Switzerland
www.adisi.ch
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