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.

UK government introduced The Trade Marks (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 under the powers of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018(EUWA).

As a consequence, in case of a “no deal” Brexit, EU trademark rights will however continue to be protected in UK.

These are very good news for EU trademark owners!

From exit day, all existing registered EUTMs will be treated as if they had been applied for and registered under UK law.

For all registered EUTMs comparable UK trademarks will be created, which will be recorded on the UK register.

These UK rights will retain the filing dates recorded against the corresponding EUTMs and will also inherit any priority and/or seniority dates.

They will be fully independent UK trade marks which can be challenged, assigned, licensed or renewed, separately from the original EUTM.

Comparable rights will be created at no cost to the EUTM holder, and with as little administrative burden as possible.

If you hold a pending EUTM application on exit day, you will be able to apply for a domestic UK application.

To claim the earlier EU filing and/or priority date, the UK application must be submitted within nine months of exit day. The trade mark will then be treated as a UK application, and examined under UK law.

We will keep you informed on the developments regarding community and international designs and international trademarks designating the EU in due time.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information and the admintrative measures to be performed to keep your EU trademarks alive after Brexit.

Marie-Christine Simon 

 

Office Freylinger a le plaisir d’annoncer la 4e édition de la journée thématique

La propriété intellectuelle, en pratique

qui se tiendra le 19 mars 2019 à l’Abbaye de Neumünster.

Six ateliers vous sont proposés abordant notamment la gestion de la PI dans les projets innovants, l’accompagnement des Start-up, le management de la PI, la protection du logiciel et la fiscalité de la PI.

Cette journée sera également l’occasion d’échanger entre participants, notamment au cours du lunch et du networking snack de cloture.

Programme détaillé et inscriptions sur le site de notre partenaire Paperjam Club.

Infos pratiques:
Date: 19 mars 2019
Horaires: 9h00 – 16h00, y compris lunch & snack
Lieu: Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg  (Parking Saint Esprit)

The 1st of March 2019 marks the entry into force of the amended Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property. Being considered as a cornerstone in the harmonisation of trademark law at European level (cf. Directive 2015/2436 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to trademarks), the amendments aim at modernizing and simplifying procedures.

Some of the most important changes pave the way for:

• the registration of non-graphical trademarks such as sound marks;
• listing the goods and services covered by a trademark in a clear and precise way;
• an extension of grounds for opposition and cancellation procedures; and
• a system for registration of certification marks to name only a few.

Although the focus of the amended Convention clearly lies on the strengthening of the rights of trademark owners, some limitations and defense mechanism have as well been enshrined such as the possibilities for action against the use of a trademark in comparative advertising and measures against counterfeit goods in transit. Moreover, the possibilities for the defendant to request proof of genuine use are extended. Owners of collective trademarks may, during a transitional period, transform their trademarks into certification marks, if applicable.

Marie-Christine SIMON

For more details, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.