Thomas HuberGemeinschaftsmarke und Gemeinschaftsgeschmacksmuster

Rezension

[...] ein Werk, das eine Lücke schließt. Es regt an, beantwortet bisher allenfalls unzureichend beantwortete Fragen der Praxis und wird sicherlich Eingang in die Rechtsprechung und Kommentierungen zweier Fachgebiete finden, die es verbindet.

About this book deutschenglish

Community trademark and Community design are stories of success of the European Union. The impressive figures of the register reflect the success of these Union-IP-Rights. Furthermore, they have produced spectacular cases like the proceedings around the Community trademark of the Lindt „Golden Bunny“ or the Community designs of Apple’s „iPad“. However, the enforcement of these rights is committed to the national courts of the Member States of the EU.

Against this background, this book explains the union-wide basis by means of selected aspects and numerous examples of case law. This study describes the fundamental basics and the particularities of legal interpretation of the regulations. The author develops own ideas on a practical approach to the problem that the legal texts exist in 23 languages, but partially deviate from one another.

In addition, the study comes to the conclusion that there is an overlap of protection to a significant extent. The proposals on delimitation are commented in the light of current case law of the European Court of Justice and the General Court.

The prerequisites of infringement are compared in detail. The study observes that the infringement of a Community trademark may be assessed territorially different. Contrary, the infringement of a Community design has to be assessed EU-wide unitarily. The author also deals with issues that are important for practitioners such as the meaning of a description for the infringement test. Finally, the particularities of the procedural systems are discussed. The duration of proceedings is demonstrated by cases that were decided by final instances.

This study was held to have a particular relevance for practitioners applying the law. The author’s conclusion of the overall comparison is that the registered Community design is the most efficient Union-IP-Right.