The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is a central body based in Alicante, Spain, which administers EU registered trade marks and registered designs, registered IP rights which have effect across the whole of the EU.
On October 15, 2024, the Grand Board of Appeal published its reasoned opinion on the questions referred by the Executive Director of EUIPO (Referral of February 22, 2024, already commented here) in case in case R 497/2024-G regarding EUIPO’s practice on conversion. The case deserves a quick recap. In ‘NIGHTWATCH’ (R 1241/2020-4 of 26/09/2022 (already discussed here),…
In September 2024, the Munich Court (Germany) found three defendants guilty of commercial gang fraud for sending misleading invoices to EUIPO customers. Each defendant was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months of imprisonment, suspended with a three-year probation period. The Court also ordered that the confiscation of around €200,000 – the amount the fraudsters…
In February 2023, we reported the NIGHTWATCH decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the EUIPO addressing conversion of EUTMs, and more specifically, whether conversion can be filed where the EUTM (application) was withdrawn or surrendered after a first-instance decision refusing or invalidating it but before the appeal period has expired. The EUIPO in…
On June 17, 2024, in the Netherlands, 18 Benelux spirits trademarks owned by Russia – including those for the iconic vodka brands STOLICHNAYA, MOSKOVSKAYA, and NA ZDOROVYE – were auctioned off in one single lot for €1.6 million. Some of these trademarks are also registered at the EUIPO claiming seniority. Interestingly enough, the auction terms…
Chiquita Brands queens it over Red Queen – General Court, 29 May 2024, T-79/23 The General Court (GC) has annulled another Board of Appeal decision. That in itself is worth reporting as this happens in only about 15% of cases. The Court held that, contrary to the Board’s decision, and despite both marks covering identical…
A few days ago, we reported that the Executive Director (ED) of the EUIPO had referred questions to the Grand Board of Appeal (see here) . The full referral has now been published (see here) so that stakeholders can present observations to the Grand Board under Article 37(6) EUTMDR. The referral regards the decision by…
On April 2nd, the EUIPO has publicly announced the first referral by the Executive Director to the Grand Board of Appeal pursuant to Article 159(4)(l) of the EUTMR n. 2017/1001 in conjunction with Article 37(4) and (5) of EUTMDR n. 2018/625 (see at https://www.euipo.europa.eu/es/news/first-referral-of-questions-by-the-executive-director-to-the-grand-board-of-appeal ). The main issue regards the Board of Appeal (BOA) decision…
On 13 March 2024, the General Court (3rd and 7th Chamber) issued two judgments dealing with weak marks in the sense the most trademark practitioners applaud, namely granting descriptive elements in trademarks only a minimal scope of protection. In both cases, this led to the GC confirming the decisions of the Fifth Board of Appeal…
All trademark news that you might have missed last month in one convenient overview. Read up on the latest news reported by the Kluwer IP Reporter. EUIPO adopts CP13, CP14 Common Practices In November 2023 the management board of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) adopted the CP13 Common Practice (Trade mark applications made…
Part 1 of this year’s retrospective provided a general overview over the GC case law from 2023 with numbers and a special focus on genuine use cases. Part 2 now focuses on weak marks. The reader is asked for forgiveness for the unusual length of this post… On social media (in particular LinkedIn), one could…
