When Is Trade Mark Use ‘Genuine’?

The recent judgment of the Court of First Instance (CFI) in La Mer Technology Inc v the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM)¹ examines in considerable detail the issue of what use amounts to sufficient proof of 'genuine use' of an earlier trade mark for the purposes of being able to rely on that mark to oppose a third party's Community trade mark application.

Background

This case arises from a Community trade mark application submitted by La Mer Technology Inc on 1 April 1996 for the word mark LA MER for various goods and services in Class 3. On 8 April 1998, Laboratoires Goëmar filed a notice of opposition to the trade mark application on the grounds of likelihood of confusion (under Article 8(1)(b) of Council Regulation No 40/94/EEC on the Community trade mark "the Regulation") based on the existence of earlier registrations of the LABORATOIRE DE LA MER word mark in France,