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Onel heading for the Court of Justice in Luxembourg As we already informed you Onel has filed an appeal against the remarkable decision of the Benelux Trademarks Office in the so-called Onel-case. Now the Court of The Hague has formulated question and now it is up to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg to render a decision in the Onel-case. A short summary of the questions that now are asked is as follows: 1. Will the use within the borders of one Member State be sufficient to demonstrate genuine use of a Community trademark? 2. If the answer is no, does this mean that use within one Member State will never be sufficient to proof the genuine use of a trademark? 3. If this is the case, which requirements should be taken into consideration when assessing the genuine use with regard to the territorial extension of the use of a trademark? 4. Or, contrary to the above, should the assessment of genuine use be deduced from borders of a territory (and should be decided in view of market shares, market of the concerning products, geographical market)? Furthermore, the Court gives his preliminary thoughts in this matter: The Court states that on the basis of the decisions of the Court of Justice in Ansul, La Mer Technology and Sunrider it takes the view, for the time being, that "genuine use" is an autonomous concept. In this respect, the Court states that the territorial requirements of the use are one of the elements that should be taken into consideration when assessing the use of a trademark, the required territorial scope of use of a Community trademark does not have to coincide with all the Members States of the European Union, and that use in only one Member State does not immediately mean that the trademark has not been used in the whole European Union. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Onel trademarks. Onel trademarks Arnaud Bos Onel trademarks |
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