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THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009
Get ready for the .eu IDN landrush on 9 December, midnight!
As of 10 December 2009, it will be possible to register domain names in the TLD .eu containing international characters, such as the Swedish å, the German ü, the Romanian ș and characters from the Bulgarian and Greek alphabets as a whole (not, however, the German ß, see list of supported characters). There are some valuable trademarks with international characters - think Hermès.
There will be no sunrise period, it will be first come, first served ("landrush"). This means that if your trade mark contains any special character and you want to avoid the cost of litigation to get your .eu domain, better be ready. Also, generic domain names will go quickly if experience is an indicator.
You should therefore be ready to register come midnight 9 December - I am not sure it's midnight CET or EET, which is one hour earlier (do any readers have an idea?). Some registrars offer "pre-registration", however, this does not guarantee that you will receive the desired domain name (well, nothing will). The registrars just promise to submit the pre-registered domain names as early as possible.
More information from Eurid here.
Posted by: Mark Schweizer @ 16.57
Tags: .eu, IDN, domain name, , |
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THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009
Manifest inadmissibility of reference for preliminary ruling
A reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bulgarian Sofia City Court, “Sofiyski gradski sad” (Case C-181/09) has been declared “manifestly inadmissible” pursuant to Articles 92 (1) and 103 (1) of the ECJ’s Rules of Procedure.
In particular, a call for sharper attention is made to (new) national courts when drafting a reference for a preliminary ruling.
The ECJ first referred inter alia to the teaching of Telemarsicabruzzo and Centro Europa (Cases C-320/90 and C-380/05), stating that the need to provide an interpretation of Community law which will be of use to the national court makes it necessary that the referring court should define at the very least, explain the factual circumstances on which those questions are based.
The Court further stressed that it is important for the referring court to set out the precise reasons why it was unsure as to the interpretation of Community law and why it considered it necessary to refer questions to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. It is essential that the national judges should give at the very least some explanation of the reasons for the choice of the Community provisions which it requires to be interpreted and of the link it establishes between those provisions and the national legislation applicable to the dispute. To this effect, the Order refers to its previous case law in ABNA Case C-453/03 and Asemfo C-295/05 as well as to its Information note on references from national courts for a preliminary ruling.
Therefore, the order for reference must be sufficiently complete and must contain all the relevant information not only to allow the ECJ to answer but also to permit the Member States’ governments and other parties entitled to submit their observations in accordance with article 20 ECJ’s Statute.
In the present case, the national court had only transmitted to the ECJ the file of the main proceedings and the question for the preliminary ruling without describing the factual and legal context nor explaining the reasons which prompted the national court to raise the question of the interpretation of the Community legislation. In addition, the Bulgarian Court had not given any explanation on the reasons why it identified the Community provision in question as relevant to the case nor on the relationship between this provision and the national legislation applicable to the main proceedings. In light of the above, the ECJ concluded that the reference for a preliminary ruling was manifestly inadmissible (paragraph 12 of the ECJ’s Order : available in French and Bulgarian language versions only).
Posted by: Edith Van den Eede @ 14.35
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THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009
Poland: display dates directly
The Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports a recent case of a buyer of CHIO CHIPS that are produced by The Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World. He filed a complaint to the representation of the Office of Competition and Consumers in Wrocław. This dissatisfied consumer argued that being in the shop, he chose CHIO chips and not the other products that were sold in a similar price because he was attracted by a draw where he could win some nice prizes. However, he became disappointed because when he did open the package and read the coupon, it turned out that the draw was already over. The date of the draw was shown on the inside part of a special bar attached to chips’ bag, but it could be difficult to read after the break of the package.
Because of the lack of a clear declaration with regard to the end date of the draw, the Company was fined 22000 PLN for the practice of contravention of collective interests of consumers. According to the Polish Act on Protection of Competition and Consumers (in Polish: Ustawa o ochronie konkurencji i konsumentów) published in Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws) No 50, item 331, with later amendments it was a violation of the obligation to provide consumers with reliable, true and complete information regarding the product.
The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection upheld the contested decision in its judgment, case act signature XVII Ama 125/08. Such essential information as the period of promotion/draw or the validity date of the product cannot be hidden inside the bar of the package and thus not visible at first glance. Such information must be readily available. The Court ruled that the date of a draw should be indicated clearly on the product packaging and incomplete information is misleading. The judgment is not final yet, the company may file an appeal.
Posted by: Tomasz Rychlicki @ 10.33
Tags: Court of Competition and Consumer Protection, Polish Act on Combating Unfair Commercial Practice, Polish Act on Combating Unfair Competition, Polish courts, Polish law, advertising, advertising law, unfair competition law, |
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WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2009
Spain - Rock band name, under dispute.
Big egos do not get well. And rock bands are normally a bunch of big egos. Ergo fun is assured.
According to the newspaper El País, the founding member of the rock band "La Quinta Estación" and the band's current members are under a trade mark dispute over the band's name.
The Spanish trade mark no. 2762365 for "LA 5A ESTACION" was applied by one of the founding members of the band, which got started in the music business in 2000. After quitting the project, and once the band gained success in Mexico and Spain, the gentleman brought a criminal case against his former colleagues on the grounds of trade mark infringement.
Above: the guys rocking - this time outside the Court.
The current members have also taken legal actions against the trade mark owner and filed an in rem action claiming the title over the said trade mark. In the course of the Court case, the Court has granted interim relief in favour of the claimants and ordered to record the claim with the Spanish Patents and Trade Marks Office.
According to the news, the trial is taking place next December 21, 2009. In the meantime, fans are sleepless (I guess).
Posted by: Ignacio Marques @ 18.28
Tags: Spain, in rem action., |
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WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2009
New proposed cancellation action for non-use in Switzerland
 The draft legislation concerning protection of "Made in Switzerland" also contains an (unrelated) proposal for a cancellation action for non-use of a mark, to be filed with the Swiss IPO.
So far, a cancellation action for non-use has to be filed with a civil court, in ordinary proceedings. These are lengthy and expensive. The proposal seeks to institute a fast-track cancellation action to be filed with the Swiss IPO (Federal Institute for Intellectual Property). The claimant has to make credible ("glaubhaft machen") that the mark has not been used for the goods claimed within the last five years. The mark is cancelled unless the trade mark owner makes credible that the mark has been used or that he had good reasons for non-use. The standard of proof is therefore lower - on both sides - than in ordinary civil proceedings. Cancellation actions for other reasons, namely absolute grounds of refusal, still have to be filed with a competent civil court (if cancellation for non-use is sought, the claimant may choose whether to file with the IPO or with a competent civil court).
The date of the coming into effect of the proposed legislation is not yet known.
Posted by: Mark Schweizer @ 14.52
Tags: Switzerland, cancellation, non-use, |
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WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2009
Russia: update on the registration of Cyrillic domain names
As of today trade mark owners can apply for registration of their Cyrillic domain names in Russia . The priority period for the trade mark owners will last until 25 March 2010 after which the registration procedure will be open to every Russian citizen.
According to RBC (RosBusinessConsulting) there have been about 3000 preliminary applications submitted by commercial companies within the last 10 days. More than half of them were rejected as they did not complied with the prescribed rules. The majority of the rejected applications either did not include the whole mark in the domain name or used a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic symbols. The registrars, foreseeing many more recklessly filled in forms, have asked the applicants to take care when reading the instructions as failure to do so causes delays in the registration process (and, is likely to make the clerks irritated thus leading to an increase in the already high levels of bureaucracy).
Text of the article (Russian)
Posted by: Sasha Yelnik @ 08.07
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TUESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2009
Spain – Supreme Court on slogan trade marks: no need of a special treatment (if anyone still doubted).
This Class 46 member has recently reviewed a Judgment by the Spanish Supreme Court (Judgment number 569/2009) in which the Court tackles the issue of slogan trade marks.
The claimant brought a trade mark infringement action on the basis of the Spanish trade mark no. 1,142,222 "1.880... EL TURRON MAS CARO DEL MUNDO" (“1,880 … the world’s most expensive “turrón") in class 30 against the use of a non-registered slogan for “Turrones La Fama, el turrón más famoso del mundo” (“Turrones” La Fama, the world’s most famous “turrón”).
For those not versed in Spanish cuisine, it will be worth mentioning that “turrón” is a very traditional Spanish nougat-kind of desert made with almonds, eggs, honey and sugar (sticky and caloric to the maximum). It is mostly eaten during Christmas season.
A practical tip: If you ever happen to visit OHIM during late November/December, make the most of our visit and go and get yourself some “turrón” as “turrones” from Alicante are specially reputed.
Back to the case: The claim was dismissed in the first and second instance. The Supreme Court upheld the prior dismissals.
What is interesting in my opinion is that the Supreme Court takes the chance to elaborate on the legal protection of slogan trade marks. On the basis of sections 7 and 12 of the CTM Regulation 40/1994 and the ECJ’s decision C-64/02 P ("DAS PRINZIP DER BEQUEMLICHKEIT"), the Court found that there is no need to establish different parameters to assess the distinctive nature of a slogan trade mark registered in Spain.
Posted by: Ignacio Marques @ 11.12
Tags: Spain, slogan trade marks., |
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