Judgment_paragraph 50 · Il Ponte Finanziaria SpA v European Union Intellectual Property Office (T-194/03)

50Article 15 (2) (a) of Regulation No 40/94, to which the applicant refers, relates to a situation where a national or Community registered trade mark is used in trade in a form slightly different from the form in which registration was effected. The purpose of that provision, which avoids imposing strict conformity between the used form of the trade mark and the form in which the mark was registered, is to allow its proprietor, on the occasion of its commercial exploitation, to make variations in the sign, which, without altering its distinctive character, enable it to be better adapted to the marketing and promotion requirements of the goods or services concerned. In accordance with its purpose, the material scope of that provision must be regarded as limited to situations in which the sign actually used by the proprietor of a trade mark to identify the goods or services in respect of which the mark was registered constitutes the form in which that same mark is commercially exploited. In such situations, where the sign used in trade differs from the form in which it was registered only in negligible elements, so that the two signs can be regarded as broadly equivalent, the abovementioned provision envisages that the obligation to use the trade mark registered may be fulfilled by furnishing proof of use of the sign which constitutes the form in which it is used in trade. However, Article 15(2) (a) does not allow the proprietor of a registered trade mark to avoid his obligation to use that mark by relying in his favour on the use of a similar mark covered by a separate registration.

Il Ponte Finanziaria SpA v European Union Intellectual Property Office (T-194/03)

Key facts

History · 1 version

Connections