EUROPE: WHAT'S LIVE?

1 Forthcoming ECJ rulings ...

From the European Court Justice's diary the IPKat learns that Case C-135/03 Commission v Spain will be receiving a ruling. This case deals with the legality of Spanish legislation which appears to authorise use of the term "bio" for products which have not been manufactured in accordance with the EU's ecological production methods. A further case, Case C-107/04 Comité Andaluz de Agricultura Ecologica, will receive a preliminary ruling on the legitimacy of Spanish legislation over the use of the term "eco", "ecologico" and "biologico".

A quite different IP issue crops up in Case C-114/04 Commission v Germany, which is also due on Thursday: where a licence to sell a plant protection reference product is withdrawn, but the parallel importers are not given an adequate transition period in which to liquidate their stock, is Germany in breach of Article 28 EC?

Finally, for copyright enthusiasts, there's the ruling in Case C-192/04 Lagardère Active Broadcast, which addresses the law applying to fees payable by a broadcasting company, transmitting from the territory of one Member State, where it uses a transmitter situated nearby on the territory of another Member State, the licence-holder of which is its majority-held subsidiary: can that company deduct from its broadcasting fees the amount paid by its subsidiary?

2 ... plus some Court of First Instance rulings

On Wednesday we get judgment inCase T-242/02 Sunrider v OHIM (refusal to allow registration of the word TOP as a Community trade mark for certain products in Classes 5 and 29. Judgment is also being handed down in Case T-40/03 Murúa Entrena v OHIM - Bodegas Murúa (Julián Murúa Entrena). Here we have an application to register the figurative mark "Julián Murúa Entrena", opposed by the owner of the national and international word mark "Murúa".

On Thursday we get the decision in Case T-312/03 Wassen International v OHIM - Stroschein Gesundkost. This is an appeal brought by the applicant for the word mark SELENIUM-ACE for products in Classes 3 and 5, challenging the decision of the Opposition Division and Board of Appeal to refuse registration following an opposition proceedings brought by the owner of the earlier figurative mark SELENIUM A-C-E for various items in Classes 5 and 30. We also have Case T-126/03 Reckitt Benckiser (España) v OHIM - Aladin , where the owner of the national word mark ALADDIN for goods in Class 3 has so far failed to block an application for registration of the Community word Mark ALADIN for certain goods in classes 1, 3, 35, 37 and 42.

3 ... and don't forget Deutsche SiSi and Picasso

On Thursday the Advocate General also gives an Opinion, in Case C-173/04 P, in one of the IPKat's favourite cases, Deutsche-SiSi Werke v OHIM. This is an appeal from the refusal of OHIM, the Board of Appeal and the Court of First Instance (CFI) to allow the registration as a Community trade mark of a sort of pouch for containing soft drinks. There's also a hearing of the appeal by the estate of the late Pablo Picasso in Case C-361/04 P Ruiz-Picasso v OHIM, an appeal against the CFI's refusal to stop registration of PICARO for motor vehicles on the basis of a likelihood of confusion with their earlier PICASSO registration of a trade mark for the same goods.

4 Amendments to Community trade mark law

The 5 July issue of the European Commission's Official Journal carries the text of two pieces of amending legislation on the Community trade mark. They are

* Commission Regulation 1041/2005 of 29 June 2005 amending Regulation 2868/95 implementing Council Regulation 40/94 on the Community trade mark and

* Commission Regulation 1042/2005 of 29 June 2005 amending Regulation 2869/95 on the fees payable to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs).

Their contents are plain from their descriptive titles