We hereby publish a recent decision of the General Court of the European Union (Seventh Chamber - Judgment of 22 September 2011) concerning the admissibility of earlier mark’s proofs of use in the cancellation proceedings of a CTM.
The facts of the case are briefly summarized as follows.
In 2006, acting for CESEA GROUP, we filed an opposition to the Community Trademark MANGINI based on the Community Trademark MANGIAMI. Counterparty brought, in response, an action for cancellation of our client’s CTM on the basis of Italian, French and German national priorities.
We won at first instance, and the cancellation was rejected for lack of evidence of use.
That decision was reversed on appeal: the board of appeal deemed (now we can say wrongly) that the counterparty could integrate with additional documentation produced on appeal the evidence of use produced in the first instance proceedings.
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