Invalidity appeal · Board of Appeal · 2026-04-28
R1396/2025-3
Contested design: 004731347-0012
Outcome
The appeal is dismissed, and the invalidity applicant must bear the design holder's costs in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.
Show verbatim operative text
1. Dismisses the appeal. 2. Orders the invalidity applicant to bear the costs incurred by the design holder in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.
CostsApplicant ordered to pay costs
Parties
Applicant · invalidity challenger
Airtechnic - Chatzoudis Etaireia Periorismenis Euthynisvia PDF extraction
GR
Athens, Greece
Represented by
Holder · RCD owner
D. Ellinas Factory Products Ltdvia PDF extraction
CY
Limassol, Cyprus
Represented by
Konstantina Diola
Prior art cited (4)
air-conditioning grille / diffuser design
Titus catalogue · Titus Company, Inc. · disclosed 2014-08-12
square ceiling diffuser design
Price - Air Distribution Engineering Guide · Price Industrial Limited
air-conditioning grille / diffuser design
price - LINEAR DIFFUSERS AND GRILLS · Price Industrial Limited · disclosed 2016-08-24
other square ceiling diffuser designs
Google search results for 'square ceiling diffuser' · Google · disclosed 2018-02-28
Legal grounds invoked
Argument summary
- ›The invalidity applicant appealed, alleging lack of novelty and individual character over D1 to D3 and other designs, and arguing the contested design was solely dictated by technical function.
- ›The design holder challenged the reliability and disclosure of the prior-art evidence and maintained that the contested design had protectable aesthetic features and differed from the cited designs.
- ›The Board held that the applicant had not shown all relevant appearance features were solely dictated by technical function, so the Article 8(1) challenge failed.
- ›The Board found D1, D3 and the Google search results insufficient to prove disclosure, accepted D2 as disclosed, but concluded the contested design produced a different overall impression from D2.
- ›The appeal was dismissed and the invalidity applicant was ordered to bear the holder's costs in the invalidity and appeal proceedings.
Deciding panel
- ChairG. Humphreys Bacon
- RapporteurC. Bartos
- 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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