In France, the transposition of the Trademark EU Directive has brought about profound changes in the trademark provisions, as well as in the procedural aspects. Indeed, in order to modernize and improve the performance of trademark protection systems, new administrative proceedings for the invalidity and revocation of trademarks before the INPI have been introduced, as of April 1, 2020.

Those proceedings, which until then were the exclusive competence of the judicial courts, are now simpler, faster and less expensive.

As of April 1, 2020, the INPI becomes the sole competent body to rule on applications for invalidity or revocation of trademarks, when they are filed as a main cause of action.

Counterclaims for revocation or invalidity of a trademark, as well as applications for invalidation of a design right, personality right or copyright on the basis of a principal claim, remain the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of law.

As a result of these proceedings, trademarks will now be more vulnerable to revocation or invalidity. These new proceedings will be undoubtedly used as negotiating leverage in trademark conflicts.

For more information or in case of further questions regarding the possibility to introduce such proceedings, please do not hesitate to contact us.

In France, a number of important changes are coming into force in 2020 as a consequence of the adoption of the so-called PACTE law, promulgated on 22 May 2019, which contains a number of provisions relating to the patent regime.

We would like to draw your attention to certain of these changes in relation to:
1. Strengthening of the examination procedure
2. Introduction of an opposition procedure
3. Utility certificates
4. Statute limitations

1. Strengthening of the examination procedure

One of the most important changes brought by the PACTE law is the strengthening of the examination procedure through extension of its scope. Under the previous regime, the French patent office, INPI, could only refuse a patent application for an invention ‘manifestly’ lacking novelty or excluded from the field of patentable inventions.

Under the PACTE Law the INPI will now carry out a more thorough examination and it will have the power to refuse a patent application that does not involve an inventive step.

The new examination procedure will concern applications filed from 22 May 2020.

Recommendation: consider anticipating filings (first filing or extension) for applications concerning inventions that may have a debatable inventive step.

2. Introduction of an opposition procedure

As from 1st April 2020, it will be possible to form opposition against an issued French patent before the INPI. Similar to the EPO or Germany, the opposition deadline is 9 months from the grant date.

Currently, the invalidation of a French patent can only be sought before French courts. This new procedure will make it possible to obtain either the amendment or the revocation of a French patent before the patent office, i.e. outside of the courts.

The new procedure is expected to be simpler, faster and less expensive than the judicial route. It can be carried out by a patent attorney (Conseil en propriété industrielle) without the need for an attorney at law.

The opposition procedure will be available against patents granted from 1st April 2020.

3. Utility Certificates: term extension and conversion

In France, the utility model is called “utility certificate” (Certificat d’Utilité) and used to have a term of 6 years. It is subjected to the same patentability requirements as the standard patent but is granted without search report nor examination.

With the PACTE law, the term of the utility certificate is extended to a maximum of 10 years. This is applicable to all utility certificates still in force on 10 January 2020.

Another noticeable change is linked to conversion options. Up to now, it was possible to convert a patent application into a utility certificate.

With the PACTE law, an applicant of a utility certificate will be allowed to convert it into a patent application within a period of 18 months from filing/priority, and in any case before the start of technical preparations for the publication. The search fee will be due within 1 month from the request for conversion.

This conversion option is applicable to utility certificates filed from 11 January 2020 and should in practice be requested within 16 months.

4. Statute of limitations

Two major changes have already been implemented in the IP code in 2019 and relate to time limitation for infringement and invalidation. Similar provisions have in fact also been implemented for trademarks and designs.

Infringement. Under the old provisions, an infringement action could only concern facts that had occurred no earlier than five years before the introduction of a court action (‘5 years from the facts that caused the action’).

The new article L. 615-8 IPC reads: “Actions for infringement […] shall be barred after five years from the day on which the owner of a right knew or should have known the last fact enabling him to exercise it.“

This new text is modelled on the corresponding article of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. The intention, according to parliamentary debates, is to make it possible “to cover facts that began more than five years ago”. It is expected that the determination of the starting point of this new limitation period will give rise to intense judicial debates.

Invalidation proceedings. A new article L. 615-8 is introduced, which reads:

“An action for invalidation of a patent is not subject to any limitation period.”

This provision removes any doubt as to the possibility of bringing an action for invalidation of a patent at any time.

Please do not hesitate to contact us, should you require additional information on these topics.

Philippe OCVIRK

Continuity of operations

Updated 4 May

In relation to the Covid-19 outbreak, we would like to inform you that we have taken appropriate measures to ensure that Office Freylinger will continue to operate without any disruption in our services, while ensuring the safety of our teams.

We are committed to protecting our employees and helping the community throughout the containment and mitigation processes. Thus, effective immediately our attorneys and staff will be largely working remotely to help stem the spread of the virus, while maintaining our commitment to meeting our clients’ goals and objectives.

We are monitoring all the deadlines and adapting them based on the various decisions rendered by the international, regional and national offices, so as to ensure that all IP rights in our care will be preserved and safely maintained.

We thank you to maximize use of the electronic communications where possible without copies by courier or regular mail.

We remain at your entire disposal should you have any further questions.

Extension of time limits

The EPO, EUIPO, and BOIP have announced that, in response to the disruption caused by COVID-19, deadlines at the offices will be extended.

• The European Patent Office announced that all deadlines are extended until 2 June 2020. (read the Notice)
• At the EUIPO, deadlines are extended until 18 May 2020. (website)
• Before the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property, all deadlines, including the opposition deadlines, are suspended until further notice (until the end of any “social restrictions” caused by the virus).

In 3 decisions (C 18/2, C 18/3 and C 18/4), Office Freylinger’s team won a long-standing opposition case (started in 2013 …) followed by an appeal before the Benelux Court of Justice, where the marks NUTRILIFE and NUTRILITE have been found dissimilar. The decision is based on the weak distinctive character of the earlier trademark NUTRILITE, and of conceptual differences between the signs.

Said decisions, following the arguments developed by our team and adopted by the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property, are clearly defining the extent of protection granted to weak trademarks, composed only or mainly of descriptive words or elements.

In the present cases, the element NUTRI has been considered as constituting a clear reference to NUTRITION, and the element LITE as referring to LIGHT. The earlier trademarks being protected for food supplements, the Benelux Court of Justice has therefore limited the scope of protection for said trademarks, and considered that the conceptual differences between the signs NUTRILIFE and NUTRILITE are cancelling the visual and phonetical similarities between said signs.

Following the withdrawal agreement reached between the EU and the UK, there will be a transitional period that is set to last until 31 December 2020 and hence EU law remain applicable to and in the UK.

During this transitional period, trademarks and designs registered before the EUIPO (European Union Trademarks and Registered Community Designs) will remain protected in the UK.
As a consequence, no immediate action has to be taken by the owners of EU trademark applications or registration or community designs and that the pending proceedings will continue without any change.

We will keep you informed on the development with regard to the impact of UK’s withdrawal from EU on your IP rights and will contact our clients, owners of EU trademarks or community designs in due time in order to ensure the protection of their corresponding rights in the UK as soon as further steps need to be taken.

For more information or in case of further questions regarding the impact of BREXIT to your IP rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Marie-Christine SIMON

Vous avez sans doute des campagnes publicitaires diffusées au Luxembourg entre le 17/10/2017 et 18/10/2019 dont vous êtes particulièrement fier !

Il ne reste plus que deux jours pour vous porter candidats à la 5e édition des MediaAwards. En effet la deadline pour participer est ce vendredi à 17 :00.

Postulez en soumettant vos projets via le formulaire en ligne, dans l’une des neuf catégories disponibles: TV/Cinéma, Radio, Internet, Presse, Presse B2B, Cross-media, ainsi que pour la première fois, OOH/DOOH, Native advertising et Première campagne parrainé par Office Freylinger.

Après le succès des années précédentes, Maison Moderne et RTL renouvellent leur collaboration pour récompenser les meilleures publicités au Luxembourg lors du diner de gala de la 5e cérémonie des Media Awards le 5 février prochain à la Halle Victor Hugo .

Vous pouvez retrouver les détails du règlement ici.

Profitez de l’occasion pour protéger vos créations avant qu’elles ne soient exposées à la profession et prenez conseil auprès de nos experts !

Le 19.09.2019, neuf de nos collaborateurs ont participé à la « BusinessRun  2019 Luxembourg» . Cette course de 5,5km est organisée dans le but de souder les équipes au sein des entreprises, mais aussi afin de récolter des dons pour la lutte contre le cancer.  Sur nos 3 équipes engagées, l’une d’entre elle s’est vu remettre le 3éme prix qui récompensait le nom original de l’équipe. 

Ce fut une agréable et enrichissante expérience à laquelle Office Freylinger souhaite participer régulièrement.

Bravo aux participants !

 

“Everyone hears only what he understands”- EUIPO should not only hear what it understands

Advocate General’s Opinion in CaseC-240/18 P “Fack Ju Göhte” (2nd July 2019)

According to Advocate General Bobek, the EUIPO and the General Court erred in considering the European Union Trademark “Fack Ju Göhte” – title of a successful German film – as being contrary to ‘accepted principles of morality’.

Even though the protection of freedom of expression is not the primary goal of trademarks (the aim of which is essentially to guarantee to consumers the origin of the goods or services) the Advocate General observes that freedom of expression clearly applies in the field of trademarks. According to the Advocate General, the EUIPO has a role to play in the protection of public policy and accepted principles of morality. The concepts of “public policy” and “accepted principles of morality”, which the regulation refers to, have to be considered in the concrete social context, i.e. with regard to the targeted public and the relevant moment in time.

The EUIPO should thus not ignore factual evidence that either confirms or possibly creates doubt on the EUIPO’s own views on what does or does not conform to accepted principles of morality within a given society at a given time.

According to Advocate Gernal Bobek, the EUIPO and the General Court failed in applying the corresponding standards when they did not take into consideration or chose to ignore the success of the film in Germany, the fact that the film was not prohibited for minors and also the fact that the title had not even been a controversial issue, while a similarly provocative film title of the same applicant had previously been accepted by the EUIPO.

We will keep you informed on the follow-up as soon as the decision has been ruled by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Full text of the Advocate General’s opinion available here.

Marie-Christine SIMON

The Adidas figurative  trademark stripped by the General Court from the European Union trademark register

On 21 May 2014 Adidas AG obtained the registration of the figurative trademark N°12442166 for clothing, footwear and headgear products of class 25.

The figurative trademark is described as consisting of “three parallel equidistant stripes of equal width applied to the product in whichever direction”.

When the Belgian company Shoe Branding Europe BVBA filed an application for declaration of invalidity, the Cancellation Division granted the application and rejected the registration on the ground that it was devoid of any distinctive character both inherent and acquired through use.

Adidas filed an appeal with the EUIPO against the decision of the Cancellation Division, but the Board of Appeal upheld the decision of the Cancellation Action on 7 March 2017.

Wishing to only dispute the lack of distinctiveness through use, Adidas brought the matter before the General Court, which has however confirmed the invalidity decision of its figurative trademark by a decision on June 19, 2019.

The main reason thereof comes from the fact that Adidas figurative trademark is considered as an ordinary figurative trademark and not as a pattern trademark which exclusively consists of a set of regularly repetitive elements. Neither the graphic representation of the trademark nor the description thereof can contradict this assertion.

Thus the evidence of use provided by Adidas shows alterations of use which could not support the argument of distinctive character through use. In particular Adidas has provided several pieces of evidence of use which do not correspond to the figurative trademark as filed, like for example signs showing three white stripes on a black background instead of the contrary.

Nathalie CAILTEUX

Please note that our offices will be closed due to national holiday on 10 June 2019.

Comme chaque année, Office Freylinger participera à la Journée luxembourgeoise de la PI organisée le 25 avril 2019 par l’IPIL – voir notre post.

Dans ce contexte, le Luxembourger Wort a fait paraître un dossier spécial dans lequel nous publions un article intitulé “Bâtir votre stratégie de propriété intellectuelle”.

Sous l’initiative de l’Office de la Propriété Intellectuelle du ministère de l’Économie, l’Institut de la Propriété Intellectuelle Luxembourg (IPIL G.I.E.) organise la

12ème édition de la Journée luxembourgeoise de la propriété intellectuelle
25 avril 2019 / 13h30 – 18h30
Chambre de Commerce / Luxembourg-Kirchberg

Cette année la conférence présentera un « Panorama sur les dernières actualités en propriété intellectuelle ».

Les inscriptions sont ouvertes sur le site Internet de l’IPIL www.ipil.lu.

Retrouvez nous sur notre stand !

En parallèle, des stands seront à disposition durant toute la durée de l’évènement et animés par les principaux acteurs en propriété intellectuelle luxembourgeois et internationaux ainsi que les acteurs nationaux de la recherche, de l’innovation et de la promotion de l’entreprenariat.

L’entrée est gratuite. Cependant, le nombre de places étant limité, l’inscription via le site Internet de l’IPIL est obligatoire avant le 23 avril 2019.

>>> Pour en savoir plus, consultez le programme détaillé de la Journée de la propriété intellectuelle sur le site Internet de l’IPIL.