European Union Trade Mark Registration
Recently the General Court, as a first instance of the European Court of Justice issued judgement regarding the trade mark registration in the European Union, describing the relevant procedure, as well as the provisions, allowing EU trade mark registration.
Here you can enjoy briefly the summary of the facts, containing useful information about the EU trade mark registration. On May 2010, Mr. Imran Hussain and others filed an application for registration of an EU trade mark. The competent office, providing those services and in particular registration of trade marks in the EU, is The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). That office administers the EU Trade Mark and Design rights, applicable throughout the EU. These rights complement national intellectual property (IP) rights and are linked to international IP systems and etc.
Several months later on, Eveready Battery Company Inc., established in Saint-Louis, Missouri (United States) filed a notice of opposition, contesting that the EU trade mark, registered by Mr. Hussain actually have been existing before. Eveready Battery Company Inc. did the notice of opposition pursuant to the relevant article of the respective regulation - Article 41(1) of Regulation No 207/2009. The responsible for deciding on appeals against first instance decisions taken by EUIPO concerning European Union trademarks and registered Community designs is The Boards of Appeal.
Four years later, in 2014 The Second Board of Appeal of EUIPO issued a decision in favor of Mr. Hussain and others, on the ground that the applicant (Eveready Battery Company Inc.) had not established genuine use of the earlier mark. Or in other words, the protection of previous established EU trade mark shall include proof or evidence for a genuine use, conditions, established in articles 15 (1) and 42 (2) of Regulation No 207/2009, dealing with the EU trade marks registration.
Taking into consideration, that the decisions of the Boards are, in turn, liable to actions before the General Court, the Court issued the judgement, according to which the claim Eveready Battery Company Inc. is dismissed and orders the same company to pay the costs.
The aim of the above-mentioned article is to provide some additional information about the EU trade mark registration and basically to indicate certain facts of a particular case, related to the European Union Trade Mark Registration issues.
To find out more about the European Union trade mark registration, please contact our English-speaking lawyers at: info@gencs.eu
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