Izvorni znanstveni članak
Trademarks registered in bad faith in Croatian and EU law
Ana Rački Marinković
; Državni zavod za intelektualno vlasništvo Republike Hrvatske, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Bad faith is regulated in several institutes of trademark law. It is important to note that bad faith can be taken as the grounds to refuse trademark registration. A flaw in the Trademark Law lies precisely in the fact that it does not acknowledge the existence of this ground. The problem becomes even more difficult if we take into consideration that, with Croatia's accession to the EU, Croatian courts will have to apply this legal standard without any previous experience. It should be pointed out that bad faith must be established depending on the circumstances of each case, and must never be presumed. Above all, the OHIM case law should be adopted which interprets bad faith in trademark law very narrowly. Bad faith is contrary to priority of registration as the main principle of trademark law, and its application should only be exceptional and should by no means result in making trademark registration superfluous. Bad faith is interpreted as unfair behaviour which includes the absence of fair intentions of the applicant at the moment of submitting the application for trademark registration. The fact that a sign has been registered as a Community Trademark whose effect will be extended with the accession of a new Member State, is not enough to presume bad faith of trademark applicant on the territory of a new member state.
Ključne riječi
trademark; bad faith; relative grounds for refusal of trademark registration; Community Trademark; extention of the effect of Community Trademark
Hrčak ID:
35465
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.4.2009.
Posjeta: 2.807 *