EU Trademark law.
Where can you find the important sections of the Directive?
Article 4 of Directive 89/104, is entitled "Further grounds for refusal or invalidity concerning conflicts
with earlier rights" which in lay man terms means "your trade mark will be rejected if there is someone out there with a similar mark"
Article 4 states:-
‘1. A trade mark shall not be registered or, if registered, shall be liable to be declared invalid:
(a) if it is identical with an earlier trade mark, and the goods or services for which the trade
mark is applied for or is registered are identical with the goods or services for which the
earlier trade mark is protected;
...
2. “Earlier trade marks” within the meaning of paragraph 1 means:
(a) trade marks of the following kinds with a date of application for registration which is earlier
than the date of application for registration of the trade mark, taking account, where
appropriate, of the priorities claimed in respect of those trade marks;
(i) Community trade marks;
(ii) trade marks registered in the Member State or, in the case of Belgium, Luxembourg or
the Netherlands, at the Benelux Trade Mark Office;
(iii) trade marks registered under international arrangements which have effect in the Member
State;
(b) Community trade marks which validly claim seniority, in accordance with the Regulation on
the Community trade mark, from a trade mark referred to in (a)(ii) and (iii), even when the
latter trade mark has been surrendered or allowed to lapse;
(c) applications for the trade marks referred to in (a) and (b), subject to their registration;
(d) trade marks which, on the date of application for registration of the trade mark, or, where
appropriate, of the priority claimed in respect of the application for registration of the trade
mark, are well known in a Member State, in the sense in which the words “well known” are
used in Article 6 bis of the Paris Convention.
This article = Section 5 of the Trade Marks Act 1994