B9 9882. Lezing Pieter Veeze (BBIE) ter gelegenheid van het UNION-congres, 24 juli jl. in Brussel.
“ (…) I decided to focus on one element, which is in my view of the utmost importance for the coexistence of the systems and, in the end, for the successful functioning of the European trademark system as a whole: genuine use. Or to be more precise, territorial aspects of genuine use. You will probably all have guessed by now that I will discuss the famous ONEL-case.
But before I continue, I must make a clear statement: I admit my name is Pieter Veeze. I also admit that I am employed by the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. I even admit being rapporteur of the opposition decision in the matter of ONEL vs. OMEL. However, I am here today as Pieter Veeze, the person, and not in my capacity of staff member of the Benelux Office. So anything I will say is attributable to myself and to me alone, and if my personal opinion happens to correspond with the opinion of my Office, this is no more than a coincidence.
(…) But to be honest, I am not convinced that an “invented solution” is really necessary. Perhaps the answer is closer than we all think. In ANSUL, the ECJ considered: “When assessing whether use of the trade mark is genuine, regard must be had to all the facts and circumstances relevant to establishing whether the commercial exploitation of the mark is real, particularly whether such use is viewed as warranted in the economic sector concerned to maintain or create a share in the market for the goods or services protected by the mark, the nature of those goods or services, the characteristics of the market and the scale and frequency of use of the mark.” In my opinion, if one would take account of all these facts and circumstances, the answer would clearly be different for a market of 500 million people than for a market that has a fraction of that population. So basically, I think the answer could lie in the case law of the ECJ itself. If all the characteristics of the market concerned – whether they are geographic, economic, sociologic, demographic or whatever – are properly taken into account – which must of course happen on a case by case basis – I think we could be on the right way to solve the problem.”
Lees de volledige (uitgebreide) lezing hier.
