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CLASS 46


Now in its twelfth year, Class 46 is dedicated to European trade mark law and practice. This weblog is written by a team of enthusiasts who want to spread the word and share their thoughts with others.

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Who we all are...
Anthonia Ghalamkarizadeh
Birgit Clark
Blog Administrator
Christian Tenkhoff
Fidel Porcuna
Gino Van Roeyen
Markku Tuominen
Niamh Hall
Nikos Prentoulis
Stefan Schröter
Tomasz Rychlicki
Yvonne Onomor
THURSDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2013
Monte Carlo Conference Who is Running the Show? PART 4 (2/3) YOU CAN'T SAY THAT
After Marion, Laetitia Lagarde took the floor to discuss the status of EU legislative developments in plain packaging for tobacco products and, in particular, the proposed Tobacco Products Directive. According to the proposal, health warnings are to cover 75% of the front and back of the cigarette pack. Although plain packaging is not compulsory for the Member States, the proposed Directive allows for the adoption of stricter rules and it seems that Ireland has already announced they intend to be No.2 after Australia in adopting plain packaging legislation. Laetitia went on to talk about the issues of constitutional nature that would arise if the Directive were to be adopted as it stands. She spoke of the potential clash with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and also with the TRIPs Agreement, noting that the proposed legislation would essentially amount to expropriation of brand owners' rights in and to their trademarks.

Laetitia also examined the legal issues that would arise at the level of Member States, using Italy as an example. She explained the human rights implications and also cited case law that could be used by analogy to support the position that such legislation would contravene human rights: the very interesting Radio Kiss Kiss case of 2009. 

Following Laetitia's presentation, Peter assumed his role as a speaker and discussed the situation in the US, where freedom of expression, enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution is of great importance in the constitutional culture. Peter analyzed the applicable commercial speech standards and the relevant case law providing the audience with a chance to compare the Australian and US health warnings.
Posted by: Nikos Prentoulis @ 13.08
Tags: Monte Carlo Conference, freedom of speech, trademark rights, human rights, plain packaging, EU, USA, Italy,
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