Judgment of the General Court of 24 April 2024 – Dr. Neumann & Kindler v EUIPO – Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp)

(Case T-674/22) ¹

(EU trade mark – Opposition proceedings – Application for EU figurative mark LabCorp – Earlier national word mark and international registration of earlier word mark labcore – Relative ground for refusal – Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 (now Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001) – No genuine use of the earlier trade mark – Article 42(2) and (3) of Regulation No 207/2009 (now Article 47(2) and (3) of Regulation 2017/1001))

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Dr. Neumann & Kindler GmbH & Co. KG (Bochum, Germany) (represented by: T. Pfeifer and N. Gottschalk, lawyers)

Defendant: European Union Intellectual Property Office (represented by: D. Gája, R. Raponi and V. Ruzek, acting as Agents)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of EUIPO, intervener before the General Court: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Burlington, North Carolina, United States) (represented by: R. Kunze, lawyer)

Re:

By its action under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment of the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 25 August 2022 (Case R 1998/2020-2).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Dr. Neumann & Kindler GmbH & Co. KG to pay the costs.

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¹     OJ C 7, 9.1.2023.