Forresters successful at the General Court, twice.
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Forresters recently acted on behalf of a trade mark owner in relation to two related matters before the General Court in 2017 and we are happy to report that our client was successful on both matters.
The first matter related to a third party’s application to revoke our client’s trade mark registration for non-use. In its Decision T-35/16, the General Court agreed with our client and annulled the Board of Appeal’s decision. The reason given was that the Board of Appeal had infringed its obligations to provide a self-sufficient conclusion.
The second matter was the other way around – it related our client’s application to revoke a third party’s registration for non-use. The parties had already debated this matter at the General Court back in 2015 and the General Court handed down its verdict to the Board of Appeal. The Board of Appeal then tried to repeat its original conclusion with a slightly different method. In its Decision T-879/16, the General Court agreed that the Board of Appeal did not comply with its earlier handed-down decision – something that it was obliged to do. Furthermore, the objective part of its previous decision had acquired a force ofres judicata, as the Board of Appeal did not seek to appeal the point to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
