62018TJ0192_RES
Case T‑192/18
Rietze GmbH & Co. KG
v
European Union Intellectual Property Office
Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber), 6 June 2019
(Community design — Invalidity proceedings — International registration designating the European Union — Registered Community design representing the motor vehicle VW Caddy — Earlier Community design — Ground for invalidity — Individual character — Informed user — Different overall impression — Article 6 and Article 25(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 — Burden of proof on the invalidity applicant — Requirements relating to the reproduction of the prior design)
Community designs — Ground 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 prior design
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1), and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraphs 19, 20)
Community designs — Ground for invalidity — No individual character — Informed user — Concept
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1), and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraphs 28-30)
Community designs — Ground for invalidity — No individual character — Design not giving the informed user a different overall impression from that produced by the earlier design — Representation of the vehicle VW Caddy
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 6(1)(b), and (2), 25(1)(b) and 106f)
(see paragraphs 32, 44-48, 54, 63-65)
Judicial proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Formal requirements — Brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based — Similar requirements for submissions made in support of a plea
(Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 21(1) and 53, first para.; Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 177(1)(d))
(see paragraph 53)
Community designs — Surrender and invalidity — Application for a declaration of invalidity based on the existence of an earlier design — Burden of proof — Requirements relating to the reproduction of the prior design
(Council Regulation No 6/2002, Arts 5 to 7 and 25(1)(b))
(see paragraphs 59-62)
Résumé
By the judgment Rietze v EUIPO — Volkswagen (Motor Vehicle VW Caddy) (T‑192/18), delivered on 6 June 2019, the Court confirmed the decision of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) that the design representing the VW Caddy vehicle is new within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 6/2002 (
1
) and enjoys individual character within the meaning of Article 6 of that Regulation. That case originated in cancellation proceeding brought by the applicant, Rietze, a German company marketing miniature cars. The contested design was that for the VW Caddy motor vehicle put on the market by Volkswagen in 2011. In order to prove the disclosure of a prior design, the applicant referred to a previous model of that car, namely the VW Caddy (2K) Life model, which was put on the market in 2004.
In the first place, the Court rejected the applicant’s argument that EUIPO should have, first, weighted the characteristics of the conflicting designs, second, analysed their commonalities, and, third, distinguished between their aesthetic and technical characteristics.
In the second place, the General Court rejected the applicant’s argument that EUIPO had failed to take into account certain elements of evidence containing an illustration of the earlier design. The Court recalled that it is for the party who lodged the application for a declaration of invalidity to provide accurate and complete reproductions of the earlier design and that the Board of Appeal cannot be required to combine different representations of the product in which the earlier design was incorporated, or even to replace an element which appears in most representations with an element which appears in only one representation.
The General Court accordingly dismissed the action.
(
1
)	Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (OJ 2002 L 3, p. 1).