Trade mark invalidity—AG opinion on when marks are of such a nature as to deceive the public (Fauré Le Page v Goyard ST-Honoré SAS)
EU law analysis: Goyard applied to invalidate two French registrations of semi-figurative trade marks that include the year ‘1717’ on the basis that the inclusion of the year would deceive the public into believing Fauré Le Page had been in business since that year, conveying a level of history and prestige that Fauré Le Page could not lay claim to. The Cour de Cassation in Paris referred the case to the Court of Justice for an interpretation of the scope of Article 3(1)(g) of Directive 2008/95/EC and its application to the facts of the present case. In the AG's opinion, the inclusion of a mere year in a trade mark with no clear indication that it refers to the year of establishment of the proprietor does not constitute a sufficiently specific description of a characteristic of the goods/services nor lead to the registration being declared invalid. Further, the inclusion of a year which may be taken as the year of establishment of the owner, when that is not the case, cannot, on its own, lead to the invalidity of the registration. Written by Helene Whelbourn, legal director at Lee & Thompson LLP.