The Legal Aspects of Community Trade Mark

The Community trade mark system is administered by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM), which is an agency of the European Union. The Community trade mark system has been surprisingly successful since its inception; it is expected that there will, by the end of the year 2000, have been approximately 200,000 applications for a Community trade mark.

The aim of this book is to describe how the Community trade mark system works and what procedures it follows, as well as to draw attention to issues of potential concern for any Community trade mark proprietor. The text is thus anchored on the European Union Regulations which set out the rules for the Community trade mark system, and then critically analyses how those Regulations have so far been applied in practice.

This analysis notably involves an examination of the administrative practices developed by the OHIM and its various divisions in respect of the Community trade mark, including a detailed review of the case law developed through early September 2000 by the Boards of Appeal of the OHIM.

As it is possible to challenge decisions of the OHIM before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, this analysis also incorporates a study of the case law developed by that Court either in respect of, or which is otherwise relevant to, Community trade marks.