Meisser & Partners

We are a team of eight professionals (attorneys at law, paralegals, secretaries) fully specialised in trademarks work and related areas. We represent local and foreign clients in Switzerland and are internationally responsible for a number of well-known brands, amongst others in the fields of tobacco (cigars), cosmetics, tourism, financial services, stock exchange indices, food, textiles, sporting goods, supermarkets, technical products and names of celebrities.

Meisser & Partners AG regularly rank among the ten largest trademark agents in Switzerland in terms of national trademark filings.

• Trademarks clearance (searches in trademarks registers, company registers and the Internet on the availability of trademarks)

• Prosecution and administration of trademarks and designs (applications, assignments, renewals, objections)

• Conflicts and litigation (opposition proceedings, representing clients in administrative, civil and penal actions before Swiss courts and authorities)

• Fighting product piracy (organizing market searches and customs measures, injunctions in administrative, civil and penal proceedings)

• Drafting and negotiating agreements (licence agreements, co-existence agreements, tradename agreements, trademark purchase agreements)

• Due diligence (examining trademark portfolios in connection with mergers and acquisitions)

• Internet domain name administration (registration and administration)

• Internet domain litigation and ADR (UDRP)

• Legal services in related areas (designs, copyright, trade names, geographical indications, personal rights and unfair competition) and notarial services (notarization of affidavits, notarization of POAs and evidence)

• Instructing foreign colleagues in all the above matters and the management of international conflicts

Languages

We correspond in English and German. In addition, we understand French and - with limitations - Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.

Our logo

The blue symbol in our logo represents an ancient house-sign (in German: "Hauszeichen" or "Hausmarke") of a Meisser family.

Such signs have been used since prehistoric times for marking houses, borders, animals or other belongings of a family.

Comparable to trademarks, house-signs serve the purpose of distinguishing. There were even regulations requesting their use, for example for marking cut-down trees.

An old book on the little valley St. Antönien near Klosters lists 259 local "Hauszeichen". (C. Schröter, Das St. Antönierthal im Prättigau, Zürich 1885).

Some of these signs are derived from Roman characters, runes, religious or magic symbols. Nr. 44 in the above link "Hauszeichen" can be understood as representation of an hour glass or Nr. 231 is identical to the Futhark-Rune "thyr" which also stands for "flat" or "act" and "faithfulness" (Peter Guler, Rätselhafte Hauszeichen, Chur und Bottmingen/Basel 1992, page 34).

Runes can still be found on old houses in Klosters.