Romanian Trademark Law stipulates that a trademark which consists exclusively of a sign which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind of product, if registered, shall be declared invalid if the action is submitted within five-years of registration.
Consequently in order to invalidate such a trademark, if the five-year period has lapsed, it is necessary to justify the legal action on other grounds.
The first ground could be the fact that the applicant was acting in bad faith when he filed the application for the trademark, under Article 47(1)(c) of the Romanian Trademark Law. This action could be submitted any time during the period of protection, according to Article 47(2). The weakness in such an action is the difficulty of proving that the intention of the applicant at the time of application was to eliminate competitors from the market and to use the sign exclusively.
The second ground could be the fact that the trademark has not been put to genuine use in connection with the goods in respect of which it has been registered within a continuous period of five years from the registration date, under Article 46(1)(a). This action could be submitted any time during the period of protection, under Article 46(1).
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Romania, trademark, IP
