Judgment of the General Court of 31 January 2024 – Simpson Performance Products v EUIPO – Freundlieb (BANDIT)

(Case T-173/23) ¹

(EU trade mark – Opposition proceedings – Application for the EU word mark BANDIT – Earlier non-registered word mark BANDIT – Relative ground for refusal – Article 8(4) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 – Article 2(2)(g) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/625 – Identification of the goods and services on which the opposition is based)

Language of the case: German

Parties

Applicant: Simpson Performance Products, Inc. (New Braunfels, Texas, United States) (represented by: J. Götz, lawyer)

Defendant: European Union Intellectual Property Office (represented by: E. Nicolás Gómez, acting as Agent)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of EUIPO, intervener before the General Court: Andreas Freundlieb (Berlin, Germany) (represented by: J. Vogtmeier, lawyer)

Re:

By its action under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the alteration or annulment of the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 19 January 2023 (Case R 784/2022-2).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Annuls the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 19 January 2023 (Case R 784/2022-2);

2.    Dismisses the action as to the remainder;

3.    Orders EUIPO to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by Simpson Performance Products, Inc.;

4.    Orders Andreas Freundlieb to bear his own costs.

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¹     OJ C 179, 22.5.2023.