On Wednesday 11 October, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) upheld the judgement of the General Court of the European Union (EGC) of 15 July 2015 that the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) cannot register the trade name Cactus of Peace/Cactus de la Paz for certain categories of products and services.
In so doing, the Luxembourg judges followed the conclusions of Advocate General Nils Wahl of 17 May this year (see EUROPE 11790). In this case, a European citizen applied to EUIPO on 13 August 2009 to register the trade name 'Cactus of Peace/Cactus de la Paz', which was opposed by the company Cactus. Following an initial decision that partially accepted the opposition, EUIPO, giving its final decision, rejected the opposition in full.
Cactus then mounted an appeal to the EGC, which was partially accepted, with the trade name Cactus of Peace/Cactus de la Paz refused for certain seeds, plants, flowers and retail sales services of plants and cut flowers. EUIPO then appealed to the CJEU against this judgement.
The Advocate General's conclusions stated that EUIPO''s arguments were inadmissible, particularly in that it called upon the Court to re-examine the events and evidence.
The CJEU followed these conclusions, considering that the EGC had rightly excluded the registration of the trade name Cactus of Peace/Cactus de la Paz in certain cases, as Cactus has made serious use of its trade name and was not required to clarify the products or types of products concerned by its retail trade activities which justify an opposition to the registration of the trade name Cactus of Peace/Cactus de la Paz. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)