Notices for publication in the OJ nº T-629/19 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, November 08, 2019

• Resolution Date: November 08, 2019
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-629/19

Action brought on 20 September 2019 - L. Oliva Torras v EUIPO - Mecánica del Frío (Vehicle couplings)

(Case T-629/19)

Language in which the application was lodged: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: L. Oliva Torras, SA (Manresa, Spain) (represented by: E. Sugrañes Coca, lawyer)

Defendant: European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)

Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal: Mecánica del Frío, SL (Cornellá de Llobregat, Spain)

Details of the proceedings before EUIPO

Holder of the design at issue: Other party to the proceedings before the Board of Appeal

Design at issue: Community design (Vehicle couplings) - Community design No 2 217 588-0004

Contested decision: Decision of the Third Board of Appeal of EUIPO of 10 July 2019 in Case R 1399/2017-3

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

With regard to the ground of invalidity: uphold the findings of the Board of Appeal on this point and allow the proceedings seeking invalidity of a Community design in respect of each of Articles 4 to 9 of the Regulation on Community designs, under ‘Requirements for protection’.

With regard to the precedence on which the claims of lack of novelty and individual character are based: the applicant submits that the comparison conducted by the Cancellation Division and the Board of Appeal, based solely on image A (a render from the catalogue), is incorrect, and requests that the comparison be conducted taking into account all the evidence submitted and the specific circumstances of the present case.

The substance: lack of novelty of the Community design sought. The applicant requests that the contested design be declared invalid since it is almost identical to and therefore consists in an unauthorised, practically identical imitation of the design used in trade by the applicant. Consequently, the contested design lacks the novelty required to acquire protection by means of the registration of a Community design.

The substance: lack of individual character of the Community design sought. The applicant requests that the contested design be declared invalid on the ground of lack of individual character with respect to the designs disclosed earlier by L. Oliva Torras, S.A., bearing in mind the low degree of creative freedom allowed by the technical functionality of the part which must be mounted on a specific vehicle engine, the characteristics of an informed user and the similarities between the parts...