|
Publishers Abstract:
The European trade mark system consists of the Trade Mark Directive, and the Community Trade Mark Regulation which has created a unitary right extending over all Member States. The provisions in both legal acts are identical as regards the basic requirements for protection as well as the scope and limitations of the right conferred by the registration of a trade mark on the national or the Community level. After having been in existence for nearly two decades, the European trade mark system faces its first major overhaul. Commission proposals for amendment of the Trade Mark Directive and the Community Trade Mark Regulation were tabled at the end of March 2013. As in the years before, ECJ case law in the field of trade marks has been very rich. Although other areas of intellectual property (IP) law are catching up -- there has been a remarkable increase in copyright decisions, and also industrial design cases have made their appearance on the radar of European courts -- trade mark cases still clearly outnumber ECJ decisions in any other IP discipline.
|
