Roger Federer: Why does Rocco Forte Hotels have a similar logo?

• Roger Federer and Rocco Forte Hotels both use a similar logo.

• Compared to 20 Minutes, the hotel said that this was just a coincidence and that Federer was a guest at the hotel.

• According to a trademark law expert, the hotel would theoretically have had a good chance of insisting on copyright protection in court.

Anyone who has ever stayed in one of the 15 Rocco Forte Hotels may have been surprised by the logo of the luxury chain. Based on the hotel’s initials, the two letters R and F adorn the company logo and are strongly reminiscent of Roger Federer’s logo.

This is exactly what some users of the Tennis forum “Tennis Warehouse” noticed. “Did someone steal the logo?” someone asks. “Sounds like a legal dispute to me,” says another user. Natalie Rucellai from Rocco Forte Hotels commented on this in 20 Minutes. “Although our logos look very similar and have the same initials, they are quite different because the R points in different directions,” explains Rucellai and speaks of an “optical coincidence” that this would be a case of.

The hotel says there is no dispute with the tennis legend regarding the logo. “Both parties are aware of the whole thing, especially since Roger Federer is a customer,” emphasizes Rucellai. Federer’s management has not yet responded to 20 minutes of requests.

In theory, there might have been legal ways for the hotel to take action against the use of Federer’s logo. This is especially true since Rocco Forte Hotels has existed since 1996 and, according to the hotel, has been using the logo in question with a few small changes since it was founded.

The ex-tennis star, however, only appeared later with his logo. In 2003, Federer first released a perfume product with the RF monogram, which his wife Mirka is said to have come up with. Nike later redesigned the logo, which Federer also used on his clothes from 2006.

In principle, two prerequisites must be met for a trademark infringement, explains trademark law expert Dr. iur. Marc Schwenninger versus 20 minutes. On the one hand, the similarity of the logo would have to be checked, as well as the similarity of the goods or services offered.

“In this case, the second requirement for trademark infringement would probably be missing,” says the lawyer, referring to the different business areas of Federer and the hotel.

In a specific case, you would have to look closely at the entries in the trademark registers and check where which trademark is protected for what. “A trademark conflict is defined by the entries in the respective national and international trademark registers,” explains Schwenninger. “What you could also consider is whether it is a copyright infringement,” the expert continues.

Because there is no register entry for copyrights, it is difficult to clarify this. Basically, when examining copyright infringements, it is about the “individual character” of a work.

In the case of the two RF logos, Schwenninger sees a great deal of creative similarity in this regard and says: “I could imagine that a court would grant copyright protection. I wouldn’t consider it hopeless.”

Federer got his long-standing trademark back in 2020 after the rights to the logo remained with the US sportswear giant for two years following the end of his partnership with Nike. In February 2020, the rights to the RF logo were transferred from Nike to Federer’s Tenro AG.

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