Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2026-02-19
R0898/2025-3
Contested design: 015013606-0001
Outcome
The appeal is dismissed, and the design holder must bear the invalidity applicant's costs and fees 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
Portas Arcuense - Fábrica de Portas Seccionadasvia PDF extraction
Portugal (PT)
Parque Industrial de Padreiro, Lote 13, 4970-500 Arcos de Valdevez, Portugal
Represented by
Joana Jorge Cerqueira
Holder · RCD owner
MOTORLINE ELECTROCELOS, S.A.via PDF extraction
Portugal (PT)
Travessa do Sobreiro, n.º 29, Lugar do Pinheiro, 4755-474 Barcelos, Portugal
Represented by
Prior art cited (1)
Amazon offer showing a control board
ASIN B06XD5GZ69 · Amazon.es · disclosed 2017-03-02
Legal grounds invoked
Argument summary
- ›The design holder argued the Amazon evidence was partly unclear, the informed user was a trained electrical professional, design freedom was constrained, and several feature differences created a different overall impression.
- ›The invalidity applicant filed no reply in the appeal and relied on its earlier position that the contested design matched the prior Amazon-disclosed control board in all essential respects.
- ›The Board accepted Annex 2A as a public disclosure from 2 March 2017, found only limited design freedom, and treated the informed user as attentive but not a technical expert.
- ›The Board held that the shared board layout, component shapes, and arrangement dominated the minor differences, so the contested design lacked individual character over the prior design.
- ›The appeal was dismissed, reimbursement of the appeal fee was refused, and the design holder was ordered to bear the invalidity applicant's costs and fees.
Deciding panel
- ChairG. Humphreys Bacon
- RapporteurH. Salmi
- MemberA. Pohlmann
- RegistrarK. Zajfert
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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