Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour de cassation (Belgium) lodged on 23 December 2011 - Martin y Paz Diffusion SA v David Depuydt, Fabriek van Maroquinerie Gauquie SA
(Case C-661/11)
Language of the case: French
Referring court
Cour de cassation
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Martin y Paz Diffusion SA
Defendants: David Depuydt, Fabriek van Maroquinerie Gauquie SA
Questions referred
1.1. Must Article 5(1) and Article 8(1) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks be interpreted as meaning that the exclusive right conferred by the registered mark can definitively no longer be asserted by its proprietor against a third party, in respect of all goods covered by it at the time of registration:
- where, for an extended period, the proprietor has shared the use of that mark with that third party in a form of co-ownership for part of the goods covered?
- where, when that sharing was agreed, the proprietor gave the third party its irrevocable consent to use of that mark by the third party in respect of those goods?
1.2. Must those articles be interpreted as meaning that application of a national rule, such as that according to which the proprietor of a right cannot exercise that right in a wrongful or abusive manner, can lead to a definitive prohibition on the exercise of that exclusive right for part of the goods covered or as meaning that that application must be restricted to penalising the wrongful or abusive exercise of that right in another way?
2.1. Must Article 5(1) and Article 8(1) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks be interpreted as meaning that, where the proprietor of a registered mark ends its undertaking to a third party not to use that mark for certain goods and thus intends to recommence that use itself, the national court can none the less definitively prohibit it from recommencing that use of the mark on the ground that it amounts to unfair competition because of the resulting advantage to the proprietor of the publicity previously made for the mark by the third party and possible confusion in customers' minds, or must they be interpreted as meaning that the national court must adopt a different penalty which does not definitively prohibit the proprietor from recommencing use of the mark?
2.2 Must those articles be interpreted as meaning that a definitive prohibition on use by the proprietor is justified where the third party has, over a number of years, made investments in order to bring to the attention of the public the goods in respect of which the proprietor has authorised it to use the mark?
____________1 - OJ 1989 L 40, p. 1.