As many of our readers will recall, about a year ago the
CJEU delivered its eagerly awaited ruling in IP Translator (C-307/10,
see IPKat reports here),
inter alia and most notably calling for convergence on the interpretation of
the general indications of the Nice Class Headings. It is a topic that does not
seem to go away, having been of interest before and during this Kat’s sabbatical
and apparently still being of interest now.
So if you – just like this Kat – have been wondering how each of the
national trade mark offices is applying the CJEU’s guidance, there is a
document compiled by European Trade
Mark and Design Network (in short, the tmdn) that might be of profound help to
you. Who or what is the tmdn? According to information available on the UK
IPO’s website, the tmdn is “.... an initiative to reduce the differences in practices between the
national offices and also OHIM” and it also aims to “provide different options for protecting trade mark and design rights
within the EU.”
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Just 9 pages to read .... |
In the words of the tmdm itself: “Without
prejudice to the fact that each Office is bound by its national legislation,
national court decisions and, in some cases, previous communications, there is
a willingness and a need to collaborate with a view to implementing this
Judgment in a harmonised manner in order to provide legal certainty both for
the competent authorities and the economic operators.”
The tmdn’s document relating to IP Translator includes information
and helpful overview tables on how the various offices deal with the following:
· Trade marks filed before IP Translator containing entire
Nice Class Headings;
interpretation by the Office of the scope of protection of the class headings
of its own trade marks
· Trade marks filed after IP Translator containing entire Nice Class headings
· Interpretation by the office(s) of the scope of protection of
its own trade marks as well as
how those offices reflect the applicant’s intention with respect to the class
headings and/or the alphabetical list
· How the scope of protection of
CTMs containing general indications of the Nice Class Headings will be interpreted.
· OHIM interpretation of the scope of
protection of national TMs containing general indications of the Nice
Class Headings (Before and After IP
Translator)
Most crucially it also includes a table dealing with “Trade marks filed after IP Translator containing the entire class heading: how can the applicant obtain protection
for the full alphabetical list?” This Kat will certainly have a
printout of this document on her desk for easy reference and she hopes that the
tmdn will issue updated editions as and when national practices will change.
The English language version can be found on the UK IPO’s
website and by clicking here.
The German language version can be found on the DPMA’s
website and by clicking here.
If our readers have links to versions in languages other than
English and German, please feel free to post these links in the comment box
below. Merpel is of the view that Birgit should
perhaps check the tmdn’s website for other language versions.... - but Birgit is already dashing back to her own little kitten.
Portuguese version: http://www.marcasepatentes.pt/files/collections/pt_PT/1/5/209/Comunica%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20comum%20sobre%20a%20implementa%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20do%20acord%C3%A3o%20%C2%ABIP%20Translator%C2%BB.pdf
ReplyDeleteAnd the Spanish version here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.oepm.es/comun/documentos_relacionados/Noticias/2013/2013_05_06_ComunicacionConjunta.pdf