Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2025-02-05
R0590/2024-3
Contested design: 000257001-0001
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
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.
CostsHolder ordered to pay costs
Parties
Applicant · invalidity challenger
GOR FACTORY, S.A.via PDF extraction
Spain (ES)
Ctra. de Santomera- Albanilla Km.8, 800, Nave 2, 30620 Fortuna (Murcia), Spain
Represented by
Cristina Giner Mas
Holder · RCD owner
Crocs, Inc.via PDF extraction
United States (US)
500 Eldorado Boulevard, Building 5, 80021 Broomfield, United States
Represented by
Prior art cited (1)
red clog shown on the Holey Soles website
www.holeysoles.com (archived at https://archive.org/web/) · Internet Archive / holeysoles.com · disclosed 2003-04-13
Legal grounds invoked
Argument summary
- ›The design holder appealed, arguing that the heel strap and side fasteners give the contested clog a different overall impression from the prior design.
- ›The invalidity applicant argued that the Board should follow established case-law, treat the heel strap as insufficiently significant, and dismiss the appeal with costs.
- ›The Board accepted the Internet Archive disclosure of the prior clog, identified a high degree of designer freedom for clogs, and compared the designs synthetically.
- ›The Board found the shared clog shape, holes, and cutouts outweighed the strap difference, upheld the invalidity finding for lack of individual character, and dismissed the appeal.
Deciding panel
- ChairG. Humphreys Bacon
- RapporteurC. Bartos
- MemberS. Rizzo
- RegistrarH. Dijkema
Decision files
| Language | Type | Source link |
|---|---|---|
| deGerman | human translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| esSpanish | human translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| frFrench | human translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| itItalian | human translated | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
| enEnglish | original | Download original from EUIPO ↗ |
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