Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2024-04-15
R1928/2023-3
Contested design: 004124642-0001
Outcome
The appeal is dismissed, and the design holder is ordered to bear the costs and fees incurred by the invalidity applicant in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.
Show verbatim operative text(it)
1. Respinge il ricorso. 2. Ordina alla titolare del disegno o modello di sopportare le spese e le tasse sostenute dalla richiedente la nullità nei procedimenti di nullità e di ricorso.
CostsHolder ordered to pay costs
Parties
Applicant · invalidity challenger
Castello S.r.l.via PDF extraction
Italy (IT)
Via Sammichele, 30, 70010, Turi (BA), Italia
Represented by
Holder · RCD owner
Società generale delle Acque minerali S.p.A.via PDF extraction
Italy (IT)
Via Salandra 1/A, 00187 Roma, Italia
Represented by
Prior art cited (1)
bottles
RCD No 002648576-0001 · Community Designs Bulletin
Legal grounds invoked
Argument summary
- ›The holder-appellant argued that the Division underestimated crowding in the water-bottle sector, so the informed user would notice the contested design’s ring, ribbing, and waist differences from the earlier design.
- ›The invalidity applicant replied that market crowding had neither been properly pleaded nor proved, and that the expert opinion and Corsearch material did not establish a coherent, dated prior-art corpus.
- ›The Board held that designer freedom for water bottles is broad, that any alleged crowding of the state of the art was unproven, and that the cited materials did not show a dense pre-filing design corpus.
- ›Comparing the earlier RCD 002648576-0001 with the contested RCD, the Board found the same overall impression; minor differences in the number of rings, ribs, and base details were insufficient, so the appeal was dismissed.
Deciding panel
- ChairS. Stürmann
- RapporteurC. Negro
- MemberS. Rizzo
- RegistrarE. Wagner
Decision files
| Language | Type | Source link |
|---|---|---|
| enEnglish (en) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| esespañol (es) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| frfrançais (fr) | machine translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| itItalian | original | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
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