EU General Court invalidates Porsche 911 designs
Porsche has suffered a defeat at the EU General Court, which upheld the invalidation of two of its community designs.
In two related judgments, both issued on Thursday, June 6, the court backed the position of the EUIPO, which invalidated designs for models of Porsche’s 911 car series.
The invalidation proceedings were initially brought by Nurnberg-based toy manufacturer Autec in 2014.
In its original 2016 judgment, the EUIPO’s cancellation division invalidated the designs owing to a lack of character. Autec had argued that the designs lacked originality, citing earlier iterations of the Porsche 911 car which the toymaker said were similar.
The EUIPO’s board of appeal upheld the cancellation division’s ruling, holding that the differences between the contested designs and previous versions of the 911 were insufficient to establish “an overall different impression between the designs”.
Porsche has now had its appeals thrown out by the General Court’s Third Chamber.
In Thursday’s rulings, the court rejected Porsche’s argument that it had limited freedom of design with respect to the cars.
Porsche had contended that consumers expected “iconic” features of the 911 car in all versions of the series. According to the carmaker, the EUIPO failed to take the expectations of the market into account when making its judgment.
The court, however, found that a “general trend of design capable of meeting the expectations of the consumers concerned can not be regarded as a factor limiting the freedom of the designer”.
Porsche also failed to convince the court that the designs at issue were significantly different from previous models in the 911 series. The car manufacturer had cited features such as the fog lamps and different position of the mirrors compared to earlier versions of the 911.
According to the court, however, although all of these features may have contributed “the sense of renewal in detail”, they did not constitute an original design that was sufficient for protection.
The court ordered Porsche to bear costs.
