Classified ads for parallel imports; What's on in the ECJ

"Post your FREE CLASSIFIED ADS on http://www.parallelimportseurope.com/" ran the complete text of an email received by the IPKat this weekend. His curiosity aroused, the Kat took a look. The text on the Home Page, composed by a writer who is not a native English speaker, reads in part:

"Not all times it's easy to check what our country law states about the exaustion of right, this is because sometimes laws don't state it directly, but it needs to refer to a jurisdictional interpretation.

I'd like to have a complete index of the exhaustion rights rules for each country in the world, it may be in the future someone will help me, but now we can focus in the european rules.

You know, in Europe there is the European Community, 27 countries together, a very good things for commerce.

One of the topic of the European Community is the free movement of goods between the 27 Member States.

Then, the European Council Directive to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (89/104/EEC) states

[there appears here the text of Article 7]

Reading these sentences, we understand that the european legislation says that the parallel imports in Europe are permitted, but how to regulate our business with these sentences like"...with his consent." and sentences of paragraph 2?

This is why I invite you to follow me ...".

Right: Kat on the prowl. Does he smell a rat, or is all well?

There then follows some explanatory text, more or less paraphrasing the basic principles of national, regional and global exhaustion. The top of the page carries the headings Trade Mark in Europe, Europe trademarks, EU Marks, EU Trademark Agent and EU Import, each of which being hyperlinked to a list of Google advertisers (some of whom are highly reputable). There's nothing the IPKat can point to that suggests that there's anything wrong with this website, though the fact that whoever is running it is concealing his or her identity raises instant suspicions. Does any reader of this weblog know anything about this site? Is there anything about it that the IP community should be aware of? If so, please email the IPKat here and let him know.


This week the European Court of Justice is back in action after its spring break. On Thursday 10 May there's a hearing in Case C-311/05 P Naipes Heraclio Fournier v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, a desperate appeal by the owner of the copyright in some illustrations on Spanish playing cards against the Court of First Instance's refusal to reverse the Board of Appeal's decision that those illustrations were wrongfully registered as Community trade marks for, er, playing cards.

On the same day the Court of First Instance gives judgment in Case T-47/06 Antartica v OHIM - Nasdaq Stock Market (nasdaq), this being an appeal brought by Antartica after the Board of Appeal, reversing the decision of the Opposition Division, agreed with NASDAQ that Antartica shouldn't be allowed to register as a Community trade mark a figurative mark containing the word 'nasdaq' for helmets.