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Poland: social coexistence in trade mark registration
In its recent judgment the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Poland considered the issue of social coexistence in trade mark registration.
In March 2007 the Polish Patent Office issued a decision invalidating the right of protection for the trade mark OFF THE LIP R-153658 owned by Polish company PREMIERE Spólka z o.o. from Chorzów, registered for goods in classes 18 and 25. The request for invalidation was brought before the PPO by German entrepreneur Kurt Wendler-Rothenberger, who owned two German trade mark registrations for OFF THE LIP sign: RN-1120143 and RN-2015151. The request was based on article 8(i) of the old Polish Trade Mark Act - TMA - (in Polish: ustawa o znakach towarowych) of 1985, published in Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws) of 1985 No 5, pos. 15, with later amendments:
A trade mark shall not be registrable if:Mr. Wendler-Rothenberger claimed that he had business relationships with the Polish company in the period from 1992 to 1996. In PPO's opinion it had been proved that Polish company was fully aware of the fact that OFF THE LIP sign belongs to another entity, and such action of submitting someone's else trade mark for registration in the Republic of Poland was contrary to the principles of good conduct in trade.
(i) it is contrary to law or to the principles of social coexistence;
The Polish company brought a complaint to the District Administrative Court in Warsaw. The DAC rejected this case in its judgment of 24 January 2008, act signature VI SA/Wa 1394/07 and ruled that all procedural matters have been sufficiently and thoroughly investigated and determined by the Polish Patent Office. The Court acknowledged that, from the beginning, the Polish company knew that OFF THE LIP sign was somebody else's property -- that of its contractor and business partner. In the court's assessment it was a classic example of bad faith, since PREMIERE was aware that it does not have the right to this sign and even if it could not be aware - it should have known about that.
PREMIERE Sp. z o.o. filed a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court. The SAC in its judgment of 12 March 2009, act signature II GSK 764/08, rejected the complaint and ruled that the provision of article 8(1) of the TMA provides an independent and sufficient condition for the inadmissibility of the registration of a sign and it is in any way unrelated to the exclusive protection of marks registered and benefiting from protection in a given country. The SAC clearly held that filing a trade mark application of someone else's sign when a special relationship of trust existed between parties of a contract, is a classic example of behaviour contrary to the principles of social coexistence.
Class 46 readers who are interested in the issue of "good customs" may refer to the post titled "Poland: reputation and renown of non-registered trade marks". Posted by: Tomasz Rychlicki @ 08.29
Tags: Poland, Polish courts, Polish Supreme Administrative Court, social coexistence,
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