Cartoon stick figure pointing towards a chalkboard with “Swiss Army” written in large chalk letters — representing a blog post about the Swiss Army word mark trademark registration.

Trademark: Swiss Army

First Used: 1958

First Registered: January 2004

Current Owner: VICTORINOX AG (Swiss Army Brand) [1]

Trademark Type: traditional trademark; word mark

Primarily Associated With: handtools, namely multifunction pocketknives [2]

Generic Phrase: pocketknives, as in Swiss Army® Brand pocketknives

Also A Trademark For: watches [3]; perfumes, flashlights, and pens [4]; retail stores [5]; kitchen utensils [6]; and clothing [7], among others

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [8]:

In the late 1800s, the Swiss Army commissioned the creation of a simple folding pocketknife for use by their soldiers for opening canned food and disassembling service rifles that typically required a screwdriver. At that time, no Swiss company had the production capacity to supply all of the knives alone, so the Swiss government split its contract between Victorinox, a Swiss company, and Wenger, a Germany company, creating two official manufacturers of Swiss Army Knives. The word mark "Swiss Army" became synonymous with both owners until Victorinox acquired Wenger in the early 2000s, consolidating the brand under one company and leading to the Swiss Army trademark registration.

Today the Swiss Army pocketknife itself has become famous for its various iterations, with some models including everything from corkscrews, to saws, to USB drives. In fact, the brand’s durability and versatility are so trusted that NASA includes Swiss Army pocketknives in its astronauts' standard equipment.

We know what you are thinking: what is the largest and most ridiculous Swiss Army pocketknife? That honor has to go to the Wenger 16999 Swiss Army Knife Giant [9]. The Wenger Giant is 9” wide and weighs 32 ounces (compared to 1.6 ounces for a standard pocketknife), packing 87 tools capable of 140+ functions! Definitely a tool even MacGyver would be jealous of.

Interested in learning more about the Swiss Army brand? Check out our posts on the Swiss Army Logo and the Swiss Army Red color trademark!

[1] Victorinox, https://www.victorinox.com/en-US/.

[2] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 2,806,013, https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74600279&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[3] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 1,734,665, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74019220&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[4] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 2,948,137, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74257614&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[5] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 3,550,510, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75811995&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[6] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 4,006,360, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77086331&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[7] USPTO, U.S. trademark registration no. 3,561,647, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77086346&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[8] Our History, VICTORINOX, available at https://www.victorinox.com/en-US/All-about-Victorinox/History/cms/history/; Swiss Army Knife History and Facts, ALPENWILD, available at https://www.alpenwild.com/staticpage/swiss-army-knife-history-and-facts/; Victorinox Swiss Army Knives, COUNTRY KNIVES, available at https://www.countryknives.com/brand-history/victorinox-swiss-army-knives/.

[9] Engineering the World’s Largest Swiss Army Knife the Wenger Giant, 3DFINDIT, last updated August 1, 2024, and available at https://www.3dfindit.com/en/engiclopedia/engineering-the-world-s-largest-swiss-army-knife-the-wenger-giant; Giant Swiss Army Knife, UNCRATE, and available at https://uncrate.com/giant-swiss-army-knife/.