Significant cases

LABORATOIRE DE LA MER

Under Trade Mark Directive, a registered trade mark must be the subject of “genuine use” in relation to the goods or services for which it is registered. Following the ECJ’s decision in Ansul, there had been much academic discussion as to the level of use required for use to qualify as “genuine” use. In this case, there had been very small sales into the UK to a distributor but there was no dispute that such were bona fide. The Court of Appeal held that such qualified as genuine use because it was neither sham nor internal use (i.e. use which was internal to the registered proprietor)