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Philipp Maderthaner And Campaigning Summit Zurich – Facts, Good To Know

I hesitated for a long while with this post. There’s always a backlash when you carry an argument into the public. People believe you or they don’t. And if they don’t, your reputation suffers. But there are two reasons that lead me to the decision to publish some facts about working with Philipp Maderthaner. First of all, I keep receiving questions about the reasons why we ended our partnership with the Campaigning Bureau Vienna. Second, those who intend to organize a Campaigning Summit in their city, can learn from our experience. 

In 2012 Philipp launched Campaigning Summit Vienna. It was very similar to an idea we and several of our partners had years earlier. So close, that our partner in the United States wrote an E-Mail saying “Sh**, guys, they totally stole our idea”.
I was fascinated that this young guy, so young that he could even be my son, had just done it. After visiting  Campaigning Summit Vienna 2013 we – my company business campaigning Switzerland GmbH – decided to collaborate with Philipp Maderthaner’s Campaigning Bureau Vienna and organize a Campaigning Summit Zurich.
Our agreement was that as equal partners we would make the event international. It is not true that he exported to even to Switzerland. We invited him and paid the bill. He would provide the website and design, we would finance the event. In the end we sponsored each of the two Campaigning Summit Zurichs that took place spo far with an average amount of CHF 60’000.- for each summit.
The problems started last November when we decided to change the name. 
Switzerland is too small for several Campaigning Summits and in order to have a crowd big enough to finance the event it was important to call it Campaigning Summit Switzerland. Our new concept was based on extensive feedback and discussions. Philipp Maderthaner did not agree. He told us for the international expansion of his Campaigning Bureau, his business model, he needed Campaigning Summits in as many cities as possible, not only one per country. And he threatened us immediately with legal action based on a  franchising contract that we had signed in 2013. 
An hour after we had announced the name change his employee Lukas Bauer removed our administrator rights for our own Facebook page and then they blackmailed us to change the name again. After twoi weeks of discussions we agreed, they gave our rights back but last week they had our Facebook page blocked by Facebook completely, claiming a trademark violation. 

As a result we had our lawyer analyze the facts. Here they are:

  • The franchising contract was misleading and pretended trademark rights that he did not have. It was never binding because of this.
  • The trademark Campaigning Summit is protected in the European Union and owned by Philipp Maderthaner. But only since November 2014, not yet in March 2013, when he claimed to have these rights in the contract.
  • Switzerland does not belong to the European Union. As a result the term Campaigning Summit is not trademark-protected in Switzerland and does not belong to Philipp, at least not until today.
  • In Switzerland the term Campaigning Summit cannot be registered as a trademark as the Office for Intellectual Property confirmed to us in writing. 
  • A trademark specialist came to the conclusion that Philipp Maderthaner’s trademark protection in the EU must have been given under mysterious circumstances and that we should have a chance to have it deleted. This is what we are going to do.
  • Blackmailing us to agree to a name change by capturing our Facebook page is punishable in Switzerland. Our lawyer is preparing a criminal complaint against Philipp Maderthaner and Lukas Bauer.
  • Since November 2014 we’ve had a second Facebook page and we were in the process of merging both when Philipp Maderthaner had Facebook block our original Facebook page. As a result we decided to keep the name Campaigning Summit Switzerland. It is our legal right. 
  • Many people get confused when they surfe to the old Campaigning Summit Zurich website, hosted by Campaigning Bureau Vienna. They get the impression that you cannot buy anymore tickets for Campaigning Summit Switzerland. Despite several requests Philipp did not have this changed. 
  • The official and only website of Campaigning Summit Switzerland is www.CampaigningSummitSwitzerland.com
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