A Brief Overview Of The Seniority Project

The Seniority Project was initiated in 2012 following an apparent poor implementation of Directive 2008/95/EC which aimed to regulate and uniform laws relating to trademarks within the member states of the European Union. This directive included a drive to update Intellectual Property databases to include information on seniority. Nevertheless, this upgrade was largely neglected as only a small number of member states adhered to the requisites of this Directive.

According to the OHIM, several member states regard non-renewed trademarks as 'expired' or 'cancelled' even when seniority has been claimed under the CTMR for the trademark in question. This contrasted with provision 14 of the Directive, which stipulates that 'Where the seniority of an earlier trade mark which has been surrendered or allowed to lapse is claimed for a Community trade mark, the invalidity or revocation of the earlier trade mark may be established a posteriori.' This highlights the importance of