Not many cases make it to the Grand Board of Appeal of the EUIPO. The ICELAND cases did, including the first oral hearing ever before the Grand Board attracting lots of attention. There has been a policy discussion for quite some time regarding the registrability of country names as trademarks, and the ICELAND cases…
As expected, frankly wished for, and previously reported on this blog (see here), the EUIPO appealed the General Court’s Ape Tees decision (T-281/21) to the Court of Justice. The Court allowed this appeal to proceed on 16 November 2022, recognising that the appeal raises issues relating to the fundamental principles of “unity, consistency and development…
EUTM 17981629 in the name of Pest Control Office Limited In May 2021, the Cancellation Division of the EUIPO declared the registration of Banksy’s Monkey image invalid on grounds of bad faith. The trademark owner appealed and on 25 October 2022, the Fifth Board annulled the decision and refused the cancellation action, ruling not…
https://www.top-fashion.sk/moda/made-in-czech-slovakia/5521-nehera-nekonvencna-moda-so-silnym-pribehom https://nehera.com/en Vintage marks – marks that only live on in people’s memories, but not on the market – face the challenge that trademarks that are not used can be cancelled. This conundrum has already been addressed in the earlier post on the CJEU Testarossa judgment. One such vintage mark that gave rise to a…
On 12 October 2022, the General Court decided on the invalidity action by Shopify, Inc. against the EUTM for a number of goods and services in classes 9, 35, and 38 (T‑222/21). The GC confirmed the EUIPO Board of Appeal’s finding that there was no likelihood of confusion, essentially because “shop” is descriptive and will…
In two parallel decisions of 19 October 2022, the General Court confirmed the cancellation of the figurative “Lío” marks as shown above registered in the name of a German individual (let’s call him B) on grounds of bad faith (T‑466/21 and T‑467/21), confirming the EUIPO Fifth Board of Appeal on all points. The facts…
The night setting on contentious administrative appeals in Spain On 14 January 2023, some rather fundamental changes are going to be implemented regarding trademark proceedings in Spain. These affect, firstly, trademark cancellation proceedings, and secondly, judicial appeals from rulings by the Spanish PTO. Spain is finally joining the rest of the EU Member States…
2021 has yet again been a busy year for the General Court when it comes to decisions dealing with EU trademarks. It would also have been busy for the Court of Justice; however, alas, also in 2021 the CJEU has not allowed a single appeal in EUTM matters to proceed, rejecting 47 appeals as not…
We are happy to announce the new International Law Talk Podcast episode on Bad Faith in European Trademark Law. For this episode I had the honor of speaking with the leading expert in the field: Alexander von Mühlendahl, former Vice-President of the EUIPO, prior to that deeply involved in the creation of EU trademark law,…
Vintage brands – generally well-known marks that have been phased out but live on in consumers’ memories – face the challenge that trademarks that are not used are cancelled. The CJEU judgment of 22 October 2020 in the testarossa case (C‑720/18 and C‑721/18) maintains the generous line from the 2003 Ansul judgment (C‑40/01), saying that…
