Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2008:511
Date: 2008-09-18
Language of the case: English
Court formation: First Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Trade marks;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property
Concepts: Word marks applied for;Opposition proceedings
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible
Origin: Germany

Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 18 September 2008 – Armacell v OHIM (Case C‑514/06 P) Appeal – Community trade mark – Application for the Community word mark ARMAFOAM – Earlier Community trade mark NOMAFOAM – Relative ground for refusal – Similarity of the signs – Existence of a relative ground for refusal in part of the European Community Community trade mark – Definition and acquisition of the Community trade mark – Relative grounds for refusal – Opposition by the proprietor of an earlier identical or similar mark registered for identical or similar goods or services – Earlier trade mark constituted by a Community trade mark (Council Regulation No 40/94, Arts 8(1)(b) and 108(2)(b)) (see paras 58, 62) Re: Appeal against the judgment of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber) of 10 October 2006 in Case T-172/05 Armacell v OHIM whereby the Court dismissed an action by the applicant for the word mark ‘ARMAFOAM’ for goods in Class 20 for the annulment of Decision R 552/2004-1 of the First Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) of 23 February 2005 annulling the decision of the Opposition Division which rejected the opposition brought by the proprietor of the Community word mark ‘NOMAFOAM’ for goods in Classes 11, 19, 20, 27 and 28. Operative part The Court: 1. Dismisses the appeal; 2. Orders Armacell Enterprise GmbH to pay the costs.