B9 10104. Gerecht EU, 9 september 2011, T-10/08 en T-11/08, Kwang Yang Motor tegen OHIM / Honda Giken Kogyo.
Modellenrecht. Nietigheidsactie tegen Gemeenschapsmodellen motoren. Het Gerecht concludeert met het OHIM tot nietigheid wegen het ontbreken van nieuwheid en eigen karakter. De totaalindrukken wijken onvoldoende af van bestaande producten. Aardige aan deze zaken is dat de modellen onderdelen betreffen (motoren voor machines) en dat derhalve de (na inbouw) zichtbare delen van belang zijn bij de beoordeling van de totaalindruk.
42. In that connection, it must be held that the Board of Appeal’s assessment is not vitiated by an error. The upper sides of the designs at issue, which are the most visible during the normal use of the complex products in which the internal combustion engines are incorporated, are similar in appearance, both as regards the general shape of the internal combustion engines and as regards their components and their position. (…)
44. The details relied on by the applicant cannot have any impact on the overall impression produced on an informed user by the two internal combustion engines represented by the designs at issue. An informed user will be guided by the basic structures alone and not by differences in the details, which do not produce different overall impressions on him.
45. It is clear from all of the foregoing that the Board of Appeal has not committed an error in its assessment of the individual character of the designs at issue, as the overall impression produced on an informed user by the challenged design does not differ from that produced by the earlier designs, including the earlier design registered in the United States.
46. Therefore, the applicant’s single plea and the action in its entirety must be dismissed, without there being any need to give a ruling on the admissibility, challenged by the intervener, of certain documents submitted by the applicant to the Court.
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