Intellectual Property News.

A Community trade mark will be declared invalid where it is shown that the applicant for registration was acting in bad faith when it filed the application (Article 52(1)(b) Community Trade Mark Code (207/2009) ). The European Court of Justice recently considered the meaning of "bad faith" for the first time in the specific situation where, at the time the trade mark application was filed, the applicant's competitors were marketing identical or similar products bearing signs capable of being confused with the mark applied for (see Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli v Franz Hauswirth , Case C-529/07, 11 June 2009). Unsurprisingly, the question is subject to an overall assessment taking all the relevant factors of each case into account. Specific factors may include (a) whether the applicant for registration knew or must have known of such competitor activities; (b) an intention by the applicant to prevent the continuation of such activities; and (c) the degree of legal protection enjoyed by the competitors' signs and the mark applied for. The ECJ's ruling implicitly applies to applications for EU national trade marks (Article 3(2)(d) EU Trade Marks Directive 2008/95/EC). Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG (" Lindt ") has marketed chocolate bunnies since the 1950s. In 2000 it obtained registration of the following three-dimensional trade mark in relation to chocolate products