Judgment of the General Court Third Chamber of 22 November 2021, Shaman Spirits v EUIPO – Global Drinks Finland LAPLANDIA Land of purity and others, T-679/22

• Date: 22 November 2021
• Year: 2021

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The Court notes, secondly, that the system on which fa ir compensation is based and the level of that

compensation must be linked to the harm caused to the rightholders on account of private copying

and be consistent with the principle of equal treatment, as enshrined in Article 20 of the Charter. In

that respect, the Court states that the absence, or ‘minimal’ level, of harm suffered by the

broadcasting organisations, on account of the private copying of fixations of their broadcasts,

constitutes an objective and reasonable criterion which does not go beyond what is necessary to

safeguard a fair balance of rights between the rightholders and the users of protected subject matter.

However, it is for the national court, first, to satisfy itself, in the light of objective criteria, that

broadcasting organisations, unlike the other categories of rightholders, suffer only harm which may

be classified as ‘minimal’ in respect of non-authorised reproduction of fixations of their broadcasts.

Secondly, it is for the national court to ascertain, also in the light of objective criteria, whether, in the

category of broadcasting organisations, all of those organisations are in comparable situations, in

particular with regard to the harm they suffer, justifying that all of those organisations be excluded

from the right to fair compensation.

2. EU TRADE MARK

Judgment of the General Court (Third Chamber) of 22 November 2021, Shaman Spirits v

EUIPO – Global Drinks Finland (LAPLANDIA Land of purity and others), T-679/22

Link to the full text of the judgment

EU trade mark – Proceedings for the revocation of decisions or for the cancellation of entries –

Cancellation of an entry in the register which contains an obvious error attributable to EUIPO –

Registration of licences for the figurative marks LAPLANDIA Land of purity and others – Conditions for the

registration of a licence – Evidence that a licence was granted by a registered proprietor – Concept of

‘obvious error attributable to EUIPO’ – Second sentence of Article 27(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 –

First sentence of Article 103(1) of Regulation 2017/1001

Between 2008 and 2016, Brandavid Oy obtained the registration of three figurative marks with the

European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

In 2017, the transfer of those marks to Global Drinks Finland Oy, the intervener in the present case,

was recorded in the register of EU trade marks.

In 2020, the applicant, Oy Shaman Spirits Ltd, requested EUIPO, on the basis of a licence agreement

that it concluded with Brandavid Oy in 2016 (‘the licence agreement’), to enter in the register an

exclusive licence in its favou r in respect of the marks in question. After registration of the licence, the

intervener set out its disagreement with that registration.

In 2021, the EUIPO Register Department revoked the recordal of the licence in that register.

Considering that the registration of the licence requested constituted an obvious error attributable to

EUIPO within the meaning of Article 103(1) of Regulation 2017/1001,

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which warranted its

cancellation, the Board of Appeal of EUIPO dismissed the applicant’s appeal. The only item of

evidence produced with the application for registration consisted of a licence agreement to which the

intervener, as registered proprietor of the marks in question, has never been a party.

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Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the European Union trade mark (OJ 2017 L 154,

p. 1).