Since the adoption of EC Regulation No. 40/94, creating Community trademarks, two different trademark systems have coexisted in parallel: the European system and the national system.
Since the adoption of EC Regulation No. 40/94, creating Community trademarks, two different trademark systems have coexisted in parallel: the European system and the national system.
This means that within the EU identical Community and national trademarks may coexist. Therefore when the question of the invalidity of a CTM is raised, can EU jurisdictions have a say in the validity of national trademarks, and what are the consequences of an invalidity action against one of the trademarks on the other?
This is the question that the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) had to answer in a decision of May 24, 2012. In this case, Formula One Licensing BV had opposed an application by Racing-Live SAS to register as a CTM the sign:
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CTMs, CJEU, Formula One, OHIM
