Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2022-12-09

R1588/2021-3

Contested design: 002684043-0001

CDRAppellant: holder

Outcome

Appeal dismissed

The appeal is dismissed and the design holder must bear the invalidity applicant’s costs in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.

Show verbatim operative text

1. Dismisses the appeal; 2. Orders the design holder to bear the costs incurred by the invalidity applicant in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.

CostsHolder ordered to pay costs

Applicant · invalidity challenger

Anne Germann

Germany (DE)

Düsseldorf, Germany

Represented by

Holder · RCD owner

SunPower Corporation

United States (US)

San Jose, California, United States

Represented by

Registered RCDD1

solar panels

RCD 2032581-0005 · Office Bulletin · disclosed 2012-05-07

Registered RCDD2

solar panels

RCD 34350-0001

Registered RCDD3

solar panels

RCD 1386056-0001

Registered RCDD4

solar panels

RCD 1955030-0002

Article 25(1)(b)Article 5Article 6Article 8(1)

›The invalidity applicant argued that the solar-panel design was technically dictated and, in any event, lacked novelty and individual character over earlier RCDs, especially D1.
›The design holder replied that the shading represented reflective or transparent surfaces and that the frame, cell arrangement and visual choices were not solely functional.
›The Board held that D1 destroyed individual character because the common rectangular panel, six-column arrangement and bordering frame dominated, while the differences were minor.
›The appeal was dismissed and costs were awarded against the design holder.

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deDeutsch (de)	machine translated	Download original from EUIPO ↗
esespañol (es)	machine translated	Download original from EUIPO ↗
ititaliano (it)	machine translated	Download original from EUIPO ↗
enEnglish	original	Download original from EUIPO ↗