Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2022-10-31
R1995/2021-3
Contested design: 008438477-0001
Outcome
The appeal is dismissed, the design holder must bear the invalidity applicant's costs and fees, and those costs are fixed at EUR 1,250.
Show verbatim operative text
1. Dismisses the appeal; 2. Orders the design holder to bear the costs and fees incurred by the invalidity applicant in the invalidity and appeal proceedings; 3. Fixes the costs to be paid by the design holder to the invalidity applicant for the invalidity and the appeal proceedings at EUR 1 250.
CostsHolder ordered to pay costs of €1,250
Parties
Applicant · invalidity challenger
Domain Menada EOODvia PDF extraction
Bulgaria (BG)
Business Park Sofia 1, bl.4, fl. 2, Sofia, Bulgaria
Represented by
Vulchev Ivanov
Holder · RCD owner
Nuvo Konsept EOODvia PDF extraction
Bulgaria (BG)
бул. Ал.Дондуков № 57, вх. А, ет.1, ап. 6, 1000 СОФИЯ, Bulgaria
Represented by
Atanas Kostov
Prior art cited (2)
2L beverage bottle with yellow label and brown upper strip
METRO advertisement on www.issuu.com · METRO / issuu.com · disclosed 2012-11-29
2L beverage bottle shown in a later METRO advertisement
METRO advertisement on www.issuu.com · METRO / issuu.com · disclosed 2013-03-07
Legal grounds invoked
Argument summary
- ›The design holder challenged admissibility and disclosure, arguing that the earlier online evidence concerned trade marks or unreliable web material and that the contested 2L bottle had a different overall impression.
- ›The invalidity applicant argued that the relevant earlier design was the 2L bottle shown in METRO advertisements predating filing and that its shape and label layout matched the contested bottle.
- ›The Board held that Article 25(1)(b) CDR allowed the applicant to rely on disclosed prior designs regardless of ownership, accepted the online publications as proof of disclosure, and found the differences too minor to alter the overall impression.
- ›The appeal was dismissed and fixed costs of EUR 1,250 were awarded against the design holder.
Deciding panel
- ChairG. Humphreys
- RapporteurE. Fink
- MemberC. Bartos
- Registrarp.o. N. Granado Carpenter
Decision files
| Language | Type | Source link |
|---|---|---|
| deDeutsch (de) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| esespañol (es) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| frfrançais (fr) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| ititaliano (it) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| enEnglish | original | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
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