EPLAW PATENT BLOG

FR – SA Chronopost v. SAS DHL Express France

Posted: June 23rd, 2009

SA Chronopost v. SAS DHL Express France, community trademark (territorial scope of injunction; referral ECJ), Cour de cassation, Paris, France, 23 June 2009, Case no.:  08-13729, with thanks to Pierre Véron, Véron & Associés

This judgment issued by the highest court for civil cases in France may be of interest to patent practitioners, although it concerns Article 98 of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the community trademark.

It is about the territorial scope of the injunction granted by a community trademark court. The Cour de cassation asks a preliminary ruling of ECJ to determine whether such injunction has automatically effect on the entire territory or the EC and, if not, whether the court is entitled to extend the injunction to other States. The ECJ answer to these questions may have some impact on cross border patent litigation.

The questions (in their unofficial translation) are:

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1°/ Must Article 98 of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 40/94 of 20 December 1993 be interpreted as meaning that the injunction issued by a Community trade mark court takes automatically effect on the entire territory of the European Community as of right ?

2°/ If the question is answered in the negative, is the court entitled to specifically extend this injunction to the territory of other States within which the acts of infringement are committed or threatened?

3°/ In either case, are the coercive measures which the court, under its national law, has taken to accompany the prohibition it issues, applicable in the Member States where this injunction would take effect ?

4°/ Where this is not the case, may the court issue such a coercive measure, similar to or different from the measure it adopts pursuant to its national law, by application of the national law of the States where this injunction would take effect ?

Read the judgment of the Cour de cassation (in French) here.

Read the judgment of the Court of appeal (in French) here.

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