“The concept of ‘bad faith’ within article 4(4)(g) of Parliament and Council Directive 2008/95/EC of 22 October 2008 (to approximate the laws of the member states relating to trade marks) was an autonomous concept of European Union law which had to be given a uniform interpretation within the Union. The fact that the applicant for a trade mark registration knew or should have known that a third party was using a mark abroad at the time of filing his application, which was liable to be confused with his mark, was not sufficient, in itself, to permit the conclusion that the applicant was acting in bad faith. Member states were not permitted to introduce a system of specific protection of foreign marks which differed from the system established by article 4(4)(g) and which was based on the fact that the person making the application for registration of a mark knew or should have known of a foreign mark.”
WLR Daily, 27th June 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
