Case C‑163/15
Youssef Hassan
v
Breiding Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH
(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf)
(Reference for a preliminary ruling— Community trade mark— Regulation (EC) No207/2009— Article23— Licence— Register of Community trade marks— Right of the licensee to bring proceedings for infringement notwithstanding the fact that the licence has not been entered in the Register)
Summary— Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber), 4February 2016
Community trade mark— Community trade mark as an object of property— Effects in respect of third parties— Right of the licensee to bring proceedings for infringement notwithstanding the fact that the licence has not been entered in the Register
(Council Regulation No207/2009, Art.23(1))
The first sentence of Article23(1) of Regulation No207/2009 on the Community trade mark must be interpreted as meaning that the licensee may bring proceedings alleging infringement of a Community trade mark which is the subject of the licence, although that licence has not been entered in the Register of Community trade marks. Despite the fact that, read in isolation, that sentence could be interpreted as meaning that the licensee cannot, if the licence has not been entered in the Register, rely on the rights conferred by that licence vis-à-vis third parties, including the party infringing the trade mark, the Court of Justice points out that, in interpreting a provision of EU law, it is necessary to consider not only its wording but also the context in which it occurs and the objectives pursued by the rules of which it is part.
With regard to the purpose of the rule laid down in the first sentence of Article23(1) of Regulation No207/2009, the Court takes the view that the lack of effects, vis-à-vis third parties, of the legal acts referred to in Articles17, 19 and 22 of the regulation which have not been entered in the Register of Community trade marks is intended to protect a person who has, or may have, rights in a Community trade mark as an object of property. It follows that the first sentence of Article23(1) of the Regulation does not apply to a situation in which a third party, by infringing the mark, infringes the rights conferred by the Community trade mark.
(see paras18, 19, 25, 26, operative part)