by Gert Würtenberger A Union trademark that has been registered for more than five years is subject to the user requirement in order to safeguard its enforceability in opposition and/or infringement proceedings (as regards proof of use in opposition proceedings, see Article 47(2) EUTMR). Whether genuine use has occurred is, according to established case law, to be established by a global assessment that takes into account all relevant factors of the particular case. That assessment entails a degree of interdependence between the factors to be taken into account, one of which is the commercial value achieved under the trademark. Thus,…
Posts tagged as “Trademark”
by Frank Tyra The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in its judgment of 5 September 2019 in Case C-172/18 (see here), clarified that the EU legislators created an alternative place of jurisdiction. This allows the proprietors of European Union trademarks (EUTMs) to file an infringement action either with the EUTM Court (national courts that have been designated by the respective Member State to deal with disputes related to EUTMs) with jurisdiction for the place of domicile and/or establishment of the infringer or with the court of the (sovereign) territory in which the act of infringement has been…
by Gert Würtenberger According to the observations of the author of this contribution, cancellation proceedings in relation to Union trademarks having been registered for more than 5 years are steadily increasing. This is not astonishing bearing in mind that the Union trademark system exists now for more than 20 years. A Union trademark registration is subject to the owners’ use after a period of 5 years following its registration unless proper reasons for non-use exist. Otherwise, a trademark cannot be enforced. Moreover, it is subject to cancellation request to be filed by third parties because of non-use. The use must…