ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT
25 March 2014 (*)
(Appeal – Intervention)
In Case C‑445/13 P,
APPEAL under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 2 August 2013,
Voss of Norway ASA, established in Oslo (Norway), represented by F. Jacobacci and B. La Tella, avvocati,
applicant,
the other parties to the proceedings being:
Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM), represented by V. Melgar, acting as Agent,
defendant at first instance,
Nordic Spirit AB (publ), established in Stockholm (Sweden),
intervener at first instance,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT,
having regard to the proposal from A. Borg Barthet, Judge-Rapporteur,
after hearing the Advocate General, M. Szpunar,
makes the following
Order
1 By its appeal, Voss of Norway ASA (‘Voss’) seeks to have set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union in Voss of Norway v OHIM – Nordic Spirit (Three-dimensional shape of a bottle) (T‑178/11, EU:T:2013:272), by which the General Court dismissed its action for annulment of the decision of the First Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) of 12 January 2011 (Case R 785/2010-1) relating to invalidity proceedings between Nordic Spirit AB (publ) and Voss.
2 By a document lodged at the Registry of the Court on 23 December 2013, the International Trademark Association (‘INTA’), established in New York (United States), applied for leave to intervene in the present case in support of the form of order sought by Voss.
3 By letter lodged at the Registry of the Court on 27 January 2014, Voss declared that it had no objection to INTA being allowed to intervene.
4 By letter lodged on the same date, OHIM informed the Court that it had no comments to make regarding that application.
5 The application to intervene was made in accordance with Article 130 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice.
6 As provided in the second paragraph of Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, any person establishing an interest in the result of a case submitted to the Court, other than a case between Member States, between institutions of the European Union or between those States and such institutions, may intervene in that case.
7 In particular, the Court allows intervention by representative associations whose object is to protect the interests of their members in cases raising questions of principle liable to affect those members (see, in particular, order of the President of the Court, Pharos v Commission, C‑151/98 P, EU:C:1998:440).
8 It must be noted in that regard that INTA is a not-for-profit association of more than 6 000 undertakings in all the Member States and worldwide. Further, it is apparent from its statutes that the object of INTA – which has, inter alia, observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and with the Administrative Board of OHIM – is, in particular, to promote the interests of its members in the uses of their trade marks.
9 It must also be noted that some of the questions raised in the present case, in particular, by the second and third pleas in law put forward by Voss in support of its appeal, may be considered to be questions of principle concerning the assessment of the validity of three-dimensional marks, and thus liable to affect the interests of INTA’s members who are proprietors of such Community trade marks.
10 At issue, first, is the question to what extent there is a presumption of validity in respect of a registered Community trade mark, so that the burden of proof as to the lack of distinctive character of that trade mark falls on the person contesting validity, and, secondly, the definition of the ‘norms or customs of the relevant sector’ in the context of the assessment of the distinctive character of a three-dimensional sign.
11 In those circumstances, it should be held that INTA has established an interest in intervening in the present case in support of the form of order sought by the applicant.
12 Therefore, the application to intervene submitted by INTA must be granted.
On those grounds, the President of the Court hereby orders:
1. The International Trademark Association is granted leave to intervene in Case C‑445/13 P in support of the form of order sought by Voss of Norway ASA.
2. A period shall be fixed for the International Trademark Association to set out in writing the pleas in law relied on in support of its intervention.
3. The Registrar shall serve on the International Trademark Association a copy of every procedural document served on the parties.
4. The costs relating to the intervention of the International Trademark Association are reserved.
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