Brussels, 23/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 22 January 2013, the European Union's General Court rejected the appeal by Czech brewery Budejovicky Budvar against the registration by its US counterpart Anheuser-Busch (AB) of the “BUD” European trademark for beer, on the grounds that the trademark should not be registered due to “insignificant use” of the “Bud” designation of origin in France and Austria.
AB, which owns Budweiser beer, tried from 1996 to 2000 to register the name Bud as an EU trademark for products including beer. Budejovicky Budvar opposed this on the grounds that it had already won protection for this name in its own country, France, Italy, Portugal and Austria. The EU's trademark office, OHIM, rejected the appeal because the company provided insufficient proof of use of the appellation of origin Bud in the four countries. The Czech brewery took the case to the General Court and in December 2008, the General Court agreed with it. Following an appeal by AB, the General Court partially annulled the ruling in 2011 on the grounds that a protected geographical origin in one member state can only prevent the registration of a trademark in Europe if it is actually used in a significant manner in the business life of a large part of the country in question. It sent the case back to the General Court to verify whether the use by Budejovicky Budvar of the Bud appellation could be used to oppose registration of the trademark by Anheuser-Busch.
In the ruling, the General Court says that the Czech brewery did not provide proof of significant use of the Bud appellation in France and Austria before the lodging of the trademark application by Anheuser-Busch on 1 April 1996 and therefore rejected all of Budejovicky Budvar's appeal, allowing AB to use the trademark throughout the EU. (FG/transl.fl)