Judgment of the General Court of 21 February 2024 – Nextrend v EUIPO – Xiamen Axent Corporation and Axent Switzerland (Toilet units (part of –))

(Case T-82/23) ¹

(Community design – Invalidity proceedings – Registered Community design representing toilet units (part of – ) – Earlier Community design – Grounds for invalidity – Individual character – Different overall impression – Degree of freedom of the designer – Article 6 and Article 25(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Nextrend GmbH (Flörsheim am Main, Germany) (represented by: T. Weiland and C. Corbet, lawyers)

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

Other parties to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal of EUIPO, intervener before the General Court: Xiamen Axent Corporation Ltd (Haicang, China), Axent Switzerland AG, (Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland) (represented by: M. Ring and A. Wan, lawyers)

Re:

By its action based on Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks, in essence, annulment of the decision of the Third Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 7 December 2022 (Case R 1604/2021-3).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Dismisses the action;

2.    Orders Nextrend GmbH, in addition to bearing its own costs, to pay those incurred by Xiamen Axent Corporation Ltd and Axent Switzerland AG, in the course of the proceedings before the General Court;

3.    Orders the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to bear its own costs.

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¹     OJ C 121, 3.4.2023.