From “mi-gros” to Migros

Although Gottlieb Duttweiler protected the Migros brand, many retailers misused it regardless. He sued three such freeloaders and the cantonal courts came to different conclusions. However, the federal court ruled definitively in Duttweiler’s favour.

The success of the young Migros AG is to blame: An ever-increasing number of retail businesses use the word ”Migros“ in their advertising or in their company names. They use it as a promise to their customers that they sell good quality but low-priced products. It does not seem to bother them that Gottlieb Duttweiler has entered the company name in the commercial register in 1925, nor that in 1931 he ensured ”Migros“ being protected as a word brand for ”all foodstuffs and semi-luxury foods, washing and cleaning agents and commodities“ by the Office for Intellectual Property.
The list of free riders is long and Duttweiler fights on many fronts: In Bern, shortly before the opening of the Migros AG branches, around seventy grocers join up to form ”Kolonial-Migros“ and almost simultaneously, a ”Textil-Migros-Gesellschaft“ appears.
In Zurich, there is a ”Möbel-Migros“ and the ”Migros-Schuhhaus AG“ of the shoe retailer Carl Dosenbach. A certain ”Migros-Genossenschaft für Textil- und Seidenwaren“ even cheekily advertises an ”urgent plea“ that they ”might not be confused with other companies with similar names“. Three of these companies even have their names entered in the commercial register.

In 1932, Gottlieb Duttweiler sues three companies that have used the word ”Migros“ in their names. The result is a paradox: In Zurich he wins twice, and in Bern he loses. As all the losers take their cases further to the Federal Court, all three cases are then processed in Lausanne on 7 March 1933. For Gottlieb Duttweiler it is a nail-biting event, as normally the judges do not protect universally usable terms. Together with ”en gros“ and ”en détail“, ”en mi-gros“ is an existing term in retailing. But the majority of the judges decide in his favour. In the court's opinion, Migros AG has ”through intensive and clever advertising and through the originality and traditionalism of its business principles, ensured that the word "Migros" has become the catchword for its business within a relatively short time“. Accordingly, the term ”Migros“ has become an ”individual name“ which is worthy of protection as a trademark. Gottlieb Duttweiler is very relieved: In Switzerland, the word ”Migros“ now belongs only to him and no one can take it away in the future.