Cross-border: EuropeEuropean trademark law: latest case law developments
This is an Insight article, written by a selected partner as part of IAM's co-published content. Read more on Insight
The year 2007 was an important one for trademarks in the European Union. In the Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (OHIM) Annual Report, the president commented that, compared to 2004, OHIM is dealing with 50 per cent more trademark applications. Further statistics in the report testified to the increase in trademark activity: in 2007 16,000 oppositions were filed, compared to 14,000 in 2006, and the OHIM Board of Appeal dealt with around 1,950 cases – a rise of more than 18 per cent on 2006. The volume of applications and case law relating to Community trademarks makes it increasingly difficult to keep on top of the latest developments: in 2007 the European Court Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First Instance (CFI) handed down 18 and 68 rulings respectively. At the end of 2007, 287 cases were still pending before the CFI and 19 before the ECJ.
Download