62023TJ0614_INF
Judgment of the General Court (First Chamber) of 13 November 2024 –Praha Alfa-Med v EUIPO – Rifetech (Apparatus and installations for medical or laboratory diagnosis)
(Case T‑614/23)
(Community design – Invalidity proceedings – Registered Community design representing apparatus and installations for medical or laboratory diagnosis – Prior design – Obligation to state reasons – No individual character – No different overall impression – Informed user – Degree of freedom of the designer – Articles 4 to 6, Article 25(1)(b) and Article 62 of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002)
1.
Community designs – Procedural provisions – Statement of reasons for decisions – First sentence of Article 62 of Regulation No 6/2002 – Scope identical to that of Article 296 TFEU – Recourse by the Board of Appeal to implicit reasoning – Whether permissible – Conditions
(Art. 296 TFEU; Council Regulation No 6/2002, Art. 62, first sentence)
(see paragraph 15)
2.
Community designs – Grounds for invalidity – No individual character – Design not giving the informed user a different overall impression from that produced by the earlier design – Criteria for assessment
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1) and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraph 26)
3.
Community designs – Grounds for invalidity – No individual character – Design not giving the informed user a different overall impression from that produced by the earlier design – Criteria for assessment – Freedom of the designer
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(2) and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraph 35)
4.
Community designs – Grounds for invalidity – No individual character – Design not giving the informed user a different overall impression from that produced by the earlier design – Global assessment of all the elements of the earlier design
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1) and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraph 46)
5.
Community designs – Grounds for invalidity – No individual character – Design not giving the informed user a different overall impression from that produced by the earlier design – Representation of apparatus and installations for medical or laboratory diagnosis
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1) and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraphs 50-60)
Operative part
The Court:
1.
Dismisses the action;
2.
Orders EUIPO and Praha Alfa-Med s. r. o. to bear their own costs.