MULTINATIONAL / TRADEMARKS / WELL-KNOWN MARKS

Well-known and unregistered marks in Europe and the United States are the subject of an article in the International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law, 2000, Vol 31 No 4, by Professor Horst-Peter Gotting. The author points to the disparities among the laws of the Member States of the European Union and the laws of the United States in this field. He comments inter alia on The European Union’s Trade Mark Directive and Regulation; on Article 6bis of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property; on Article 16(3) of the TRIPS Agreement; and on the WIPO Resolution of June 11, 1999, on the Protection of Well-known Marks. The author believes that a need for further harmonisation arises in Europe from the fact that unregistered trade marks stand in close natural relationship to other signs, like trade names, which as prior rights play an important role in the protection of the Community Trade Mark as they are relative grounds for refusal. “The existence of a Community trade mark may depend on the legal situation in countries where unregistered signs enjoy generous protection. This is a quite unsatisfactory situation as it weakens the Community Trade Mark.” [20018]