Comparable trade marks, pre-Brexit use and EU trade marks as earlier rights

Having spent time today delving into some more of the darker corners of the changes to intellectual property law that Brexit has foisted on us, and also having had an e-mail conversation with a friend in the EU who told me he had been surprised when his clients received a bunch of unasked-for comparable trade marks from the UK registry at the turn of the year, I have a few things to say about trade marks today.

Comparable trade marks are the oddly-named UK trade marks that were spawned by EU trade marks on IP completion day, which was 11 pm on 31 December 2020. Calling a precise time such as 11 pm a "day" is a relatively innocent form of Newspeak, which it's no longer surprising to hear coming from our government. The reason the day in question started at 11 pm rather than midnight, as most days do, was simply that it was midnight in most of the EU, which doesn't seem to me to be a particularly good reason given that it wasn't the rest of the EU that was undergoing radical change at that moment (significant change, but short of radical) and hardly smacks of "taking back control". We'll take back control, but at a time to suit you.

Anyway, I digress, as usual. These new-fangled comparable trade marks (which come in two flavours, EU and International, depending on how the parent EU trade mark came into existence) look deceptively simple. They are, to all intents and purposes, UK trade marks and treated in exactly the same way under the Trade Marks Act 1994 - in most respects. They are instantly recognisable (if you need to recognise them) by their numbers: a prefix, UK009, is tacked on to the parent's EU registration number. A neat solution, although it leaves a lot of gaps in the register. (I wonder whether the IPO will triumphantly announce a ten-fold increase in new trade mark registrations in 2021?)

But go a little deeper and comparables get a lot more complicated. I want to consider two points here (because trying to do more would make this post too long and boring): will a comparable derived from an EU trade mark that hasn't been used in the UK in the past five years be instantly vulnerable to revocation for non-use; and how will an application for a declaration of invalidity play out where the earlier rights against which a UK trade mark is allegedly invalid were an EU trade mark?

The answer to the second question first, and I have just realised that there are in fact two elements to it. Will that EU trade mark still be an earlier right, and if not will its comparable stand in its metaphorical shoes? The answers seem to be no, and yes. The EU trade mark lost its status as an earlier right on the stroke of 11 that night, but the baton passed to its comparable which inherited all the vital statistics of its parent, including priority and seniority dates. So the conflict still has to be resolved, although presumably some trade mark litigators have been obliged to do some nifty footwork to substitute the comparable for the parent EU trade mark.

This is all buried in the Trade Marks (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/269), 28 pages of amendments many of which make little sense unless you have the Trade Marks Act open beside you. (Incidentally, the IPO has helpfully published an unofficial consolidation of the TMA with all these changes in it - though I wonder how it can be called "unofficial" when the office has produced it.) This change is one of those effected by Schedule 1, which (confusingly, to me anyway) inserts a new schedule 2A into the 1994 Act with all this good stuff in it.

As for the question of use or non-use, that is dealt with by stipulating that the use made of the parent EU trade mark is credited to the account of the comparable. That is logical, up to a point, because the comparable has inherited the priority and seniority of the comparable, so it's right to say that any use in the UK needs to be considered as use of the comparable in the UK. But that leaves a problem: what if the parent EU trade mark hadn't been used in the UK prior to IP completion day, but elsewhere in the EU? In that situation, the government says, it would be unfair and an unintended consequence to say that you are creating a new trade mark that is born with five years' non-use baked into it, so use of the parent EU trade mark anywhere in the EU will save it, which to a tiny but discernible extent negates the whole idea of leaving the EU.

Dilution and figurative trade marks: Red Bull v Bighorn

Red Bull energy drink has been around for a long time now. I discovered it during my stint teaching IP at Essex University, when I would take a day a week off from my day job and trek across the country. On arriving at Colchester a can of Red Bull would help me get through the two-hour class I was there to teach, and in fact I recall that it was Austrian students in that class, who drove home with the assistance of a few cans but had to take care because it was illegal in Switzerland, who first alerted me to its properties (I deliberately refrain from using the word "benefits").

Article 9(2)(c) of the EU trade mark regulation (2017/2001) (which is in pretty much the same terms as s.10(3) of the Trade Marks Act 1994) protects a trade mark with a reputation against acts that "without due cause" (I put that in inverted commas because it is hard to see how it could be otherwise) take unfair advantage or that reputation or are otherwise detrimental to it (or for brevity dilution and tarnishment). Back in 1994 (or perhaps more accurately 1989, when the original directive was made) that was a radical new departure in trade mark law, not just in the European Community and still less just in the UK, but in the world at large: the US had dabbled with such protection but even in the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders case the judge had stuck to the well-trodden path of confusion rather than following the "dilution" signpost.

A major problem is the notion of a trade mark with a reputation - haven't all trade marks got reputations, some larger than others? The French version of the directive looks to be referring to trade marks "of repute", which is a different matter - and Article L713-5 of the French Code refers to "une marque jouissant d'une renommée". But whatever the law means, we can probably assume that the trade mark RED BULL, and the same trade mark owner's figurative trade marks (what normal people would call logos) or at least some of them, have reputations. (Incidentally, it seems to be the trade mark not the product or the trade mark owner that must have the reputation, which is, well, interesting.) So no surprise that when Red Bull found another energy drink manufacturer selling its wares under the BIGHORN trade mark using signs that bore a certain similarity to Red Bull logos - in one of the three instances pleaded, charging rams rather than charging bulls - they sued for trade mark infringement on grounds of likelihood of confusion (the rams obviously meaning that the defendant's trade mark could not be identical) and unfair advantage (without due cause, of course).


The deputy judge, Kelyon Baker QC, found no infringement under Article 9(2)(b) - likelihood of confusion - but did consider that the defendant took unfair advantage of the reputation of the claimant's trade mark: Red Bull GmbH v Big Horn UK Ltd & Ors [2020] EWHC 124 (Ch) (30 January 2020). I have shown one of the claimant's registered trade marks and one of the defendant's signs, but you can see them all in the judgment if you click on the link, should you feel it necessary.

There was not a high enough level of similarity to find a likelihood of confusion under Article 9(2)(b), but that didn't matter much because the Deputy Judge held that there was unfair advantage, so Red Bull succeeded. Sky v Skykick [2018] EWHC 155 (Ch) told us that this required the global assessment so beloved of the Court of Justice, taking into account all the circumstances of the case. These would include the strength of the trade mark's reputation, the defree of its distinctive character, the degree of similarity, and the nature and degree of proximity of the goods or services. How strongly and immediately was the claimant's mark brought to mind by the defendant's sign? That would determine whether the use of the sign was taking unfair advantage of the trade mark's distinctive character or reputation.

The defendant did not try to argue that the Red Bull trade marks were not well-known within the EU, which would surely have been a waste of time had they attempted it. Nor did it try to justify its actions by showing "due cause", whatever that might look like (parody, perhaps?). The defendant's signs were visually and conceptually similar to the claimant's marks. They were being used for the same goods, which were sold in the same shops. They were therefore likely to cayuse the average consumer to link those signs with the claimant's marks, and unfair advantage was therefore being taken.

Online EU trade mark infringement actionable where advertising directed

Infringement proceedings involving an EU trade mark must generally be brought before the courts of the member state in which a defendant is domiciled (Regulation 207/2009/EC, Article 97(1)). They can also be brought before the courts of the Member State “in which the act of infringement has been committed or threatened” (Article 97(5)). What happens when the defendants are a Spanish company and a Spanish individual, and the trade mark owners are British (and the exclusive licensee is an English company)? Obviously an action could be brought in Spain, but could the claimant sue in the UK on the basis of Article 97(5)??

The claimants issued proceedings for infringement in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, on the basis that the defendants' online activities amounted to advertising or offering counterfeit goods for sale in the UK. IPEC refused to accept jurisdiction under Article 97(5), taking the view that only the courts in Spain, where steps had been taken to put the offending sign on a website, or decision to that effect had taken place, had jurisdiction under that provision. The claimants appealed, and the Court of Appeal sent the matter on an expedition to Luxembourg.

The Court of Justice ruled that Article 97(5) allowed the trade mark owner to bring infringement proceedings before an EUTM court of the Member State where the consumers or traders to whom online advertising and offers for sale were directed were located. It made no difference that took decisions and steps necessary to bring about the electronic display in another Member State.

The Court reasoned that, if Article 97(5) were interpreted otherwise, a defendant could deprive Article 97(5) of any effect by making sure that the territory where they set up their website and activated the display of their advertising and offers for sale was the same as that in which it was established.

The Court of Appeal has to decide whether the advertising and offers for sale on the website and platforms in issue were in fact targeted at UK consumers or traders. It must do so on the basis of factors such as the details about the geographical areas where the products were to be delivered.
AMS Neve Ltd and others v Heritage Audio SL and others (Case C-172/18) EU:C:2019:674

Trade marks after B****t

If and when the UK leaves the EU, which still cannot be considered a certainty, trade mark practice will change dramatically. The law will remain mostly unchanged, as having implemented the trade marks directive the Trade Marks Act 1992 stands on its own merits, but this conceals some radical changes to the way UK trade mark owners will have to protect themselves. While the directive will survive in the guise of the Act, the same is not true of the EU trade marks regulation: what will happen there will depend on the terms on which the UK leaves.

The draft withdrawal agreement covers much of the ground, of course, but it's just that: a draft. Every day the chances of a "no deal" departure seem to grow, so while it's obviously important to consider the draft agreement we've got to remember that the UK could still be crashing out with no agreement on these important points.

From "exit day", 29 March 2019 (the name comes from the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, a surprisingly concise piece of legislation considering it rewrites most of the statute book), EU trade marks (and Registered Community Designs, a topic for another day) will cease to give protection here. That's pretty obvious. According to the draft agreement, a magical process will be put in place to carve out from existing EU trade marks the rights that apply in the UK, creating equivalent registered and enforceable rights or "corresponding" UK trade marks and the government (in the draft withdrawal agreement) promises that this will be without charge. Whether the temptation to raise some revenue from the exercise proves too much, only time will tell.

Non-UK owners of corresponding trade marks will, presumably, need a correspondence address in the UK: and by the same token UK owners of EU trade marks will need correspondence addresses in the EU27. Of course before red tape can be abolished more has to be created, and additional costs must be imposed on business before they can enjoy savings! And UK practitioners will no longer be able to represent clients before the EUIPO, so clients will need new representatives and will, of course, incur additional expenses. The UK professions will lose important export business, too, and being deprived of the right to pursue part of my practice is enough to make me unhappy, and justifiably I think.

EU trade mark applications that remain pending on E-Day will not be dealt with automatically. Corresponding trade marks will not be available - UK trade marks will have to be obtained separately. Applicants will be given a nine-month priority period during which they will be able to file in the UK and claim priority from the earlier EU trade mark application. One thing that might help trade mark owners here is that if their EU application faces a potential opposition but is OK in the UK, they can wait and take advantage of the priority period to file a UK application.

If an EU trade mark is subject to invalidation or revocation proceedings on exit day, and is later cancelled, the corresponding trade mark rights in the UK will be lost too unless the grounds for cancellation do not apply in the UK (which might be because there is a conflicting trade mark in Malta or the trade mark is descriptive in Estonian, or something like that which would count against an EU trade mark but not a UK one). New secondary legislation will be needed to achieve this. Where the EU trade mark from which the corresponding trade mark is derived enjoys priority from an earlier trade mark, or has the seniority of an earlier UK trade mark (this refers to the process by which trade mark owners were allowed effectively to backdate their EU trade mark to the date of national trade marks, so they could then allow them to lapse - which would never have been a great idea, in fact) the corresponding trade mark will benefit from the priority or seniority.

What if the EU trade mark has not been used in the UK in the past five years? Then it will be immune to challenge on those grounds until the end of the transition period (31 December 2020). Similarly, during the transition period owners of EU trade marks will be able to rely on a reputation in the EU for the purposes of UK infringement proceedings, but after the end of the transition period their reputation will have to be in the UK.

I have been advising clients that it would be a good idea to go for UK national trade marks even if they have EU ones for some time already. The application of the rules about use and reputations if the trade mark has not been used widely in the EU make relying on UK trade marks rather uncertain already, and withdrawal is not going to make it any easier.

There are questions still to be dealt with concerning the treatment in the UK of internationals designating the EU, especially if they have not been granted protection by E-Day. These are for the UK to sort out - nothing to do with Brussels.

One aspect of the Trade Marks Act which will change is section 12, which deals with exhaustion of trade mark rights. That's a topic for another posting, I think.