manuelesteban
4 May 2020TrademarksRory O'Neill

General Court finds EUIPO error in Lidl eco-plastics dispute

German supermarket  Lidl has won a partial victory in its effort to have a biodegradable plastics trademark revoked at the EU General Court.

Spanish company  Plásticos Hidrosolubles registered the ‘Green Cycles’ EU trademark in 2010, covering a range of goods and services related to plastics in classes 17, 20, 40, and 42.

In 2015, Lidl filed an application to have the mark cancelled for non-use for all goods and services.

Lidl’s parent company Schwarz Group owns a waste management business called  GreenCycle, through which it has acquired a number of smaller plastic recycling companies.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) effectively ruled against Lidl, deciding to revoke the mark only for “treatment of materials with the exception of plastics” in class 40, leaving the rest of the trademark intact.

According to the EUIPO, the Spanish company successfully proved genuine use of the mark in respect of all other registered goods and services.

Lidl appealed the decision, looking to have the rest of the mark cancelled as well. But an EUIPO board upheld the previous ruling.

But after another appeal, the EU General Court has stepped in and reversed the EUIPO’s genuine use finding for class 20, which covers “articles made of plastics”.

Plásticos Hidrosolubles had provided evidence to the EUIPO showing use of the mark for products like bottles, bags, golf balls, and bin bags. The EUIPO considered this sufficient to establish genuine use for “articles made of plastics” in class 20.

But the General Court has said that these products were mistakenly categorised as being in class 20 by the EUIPO, because that category should cover “plastic goods not included in other classes”.

Products like golf balls and bin bags were already covered by classes 16 and 18, respectively, the court found, ruling that most of the goods in question did not fall under class 20.

The General Court rejected the rest of Lidl’s appeal, upholding the EUIPO’s finding of genuine use for all the other goods and services.

Each party was ordered to bear their own costs.

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