St Moritz registers ‘summer’ as trademark

Aerial view of St Moritz and its lake. Keystone-SDA

The chic resort of St Moritz in southeastern Switzerland has registered "summer" as a trademark under the name "St Summer". The resort in canton Graubünden is launching a campaign to strengthen its summer tourism business.

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The St Moritz tourism office recently announced the “St Summer” campaign as part of a long-term strategy.

St Moritz has used a distinctive sun logo and lettering since 1930. They are the oldest tourism trademarks still in use and are registered in a trademark register, the tourism office says on its website.

The Engadine resort has been recognised as a tourism brand pioneer since 1987, when the legendary spa director Hans Peter Danuser had the village name St Moritz protected as a trademark. This surprised many tourism professionals at the time, and the news even made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Preventing imitations

The new “St Summer” trademark was registered and internationally protected at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, tourism boss Marijana Jakic told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

“The trademark registration primarily serves to protect our creative idea,” she explained. An online platform aims to use it to focus on “a new, independent offer” for summer holidaymakers.

By registering the brand, St Moritz secures the exclusive rights to this specific form – this prevents imitations and strengthens its positioning as an original tourism player, she explains.

No claim to the summer

The registration of the term “St Summer” as a trademark was possible because it was not a general claim to protection of the term summer, said Jakic.

“We are talking here about a so-called word-image trademark, in which the visual representation, the design and the connection with the sender St Moritz create an independent, protectable brand identity,” explained the tourism director. The protection allows a recognisable, consistent brand to be built in the long term.

St Moritz’s tourist office is investing a five-figure sum in the new summer campaign. The aim is to establish itself as a leading destination in the summer season too.

“The St Moritz guest structure generates more added value in winter than in summer,” says the municipality on its website. More tourists arrive in summer (140,000) than in winter (110,000 guests). But the average length of stay of a hotel guest is just under three days in summer, compared to a five in winter.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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