Case C-17/06: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 11 September 2007 — Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour d'appel de Nancy, France — Céline SARL v Celine SA (Trade marks — Articles 5(1)(a) and 6(1)(a) of First Directive 89/104/EEC — Right of the proprietor of a registered trade mark to oppose the use by a third party of a sign which is identical to the mark — Use of the sign as a company, trade or shop name — Right of the third party to use his name)
Date: 2007-11-10
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU trade mark, brand name, interpretation of the law, trade-mark law

10.11.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 269/11

Re:

Parties to the main proceedings

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Oberster Gerichtshof —
Council Directive 2001/23/EC of 12 March 2001 on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the
safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of
undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses
(OJ 2001 L 82, p. 16) — Scope of application — Concept of
‘part of an undertaking’ — Transfer between two temporary
staff agencies of an office worker, a branch manager, a customer
adviser and a manager and a third of
the temporary staff
together with the clients using those staff.

Operative part of the Judgment

Article 1(1) of Council Directive 2001/23/EC of 12 March 2001 on
the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the
safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertak-
ings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses must be inter-
preted as applying to a situation where part of
the administrative
personnel and part of the temporary workers are transferred to another
temporary employment business in order to carry out the same activities
in that business for the same clients and — which is a matter for the
referring court to establish — the assets affected by the transfer are
sufficient in themselves to allow the services characterising the economic
activity in question to be provided without recourse to other significant
assets or to other parts of the business.

(1) OJ C 178, 29.7.2006.

Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 11 September
2007 — Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Cour
d'appel de Nancy, France — Céline SARL v Celine SA

(Case C-17/06) (1)

(Trade marks — Articles 5(1)(a) and 6(1)(a) of First Directive
89/104/EEC — Right of the proprietor of a registered trade
mark to oppose the use by a third party of a sign which is
identical to the mark — Use of the sign as a company, trade
or shop name — Right of the third party to use his name)

(2007/C 269/21)

Language of the case: French

Applicant: Céline SARL

Defendant: Céline SA

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Cour d'appel de Nancy —
Interpretation of Article 5(1) of Directive 89/104/EEC: First
Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approx-
imate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks
(OJ 1989 L 40, p. 1) — Use of a sign identical to a registered
word mark as a company name and shop name in connection
with the marketing of identical goods.

Operative part of the judgment

The unauthorised use by a third party of a company name, trade name
or shop name which is identical to an earlier mark in connection with
the marketing of goods which are identical to those in relation to
which that mark was registered constitutes use which the proprietor of
that mark is entitled to prevent in accordance with Article 5(1)(a) of
First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to
approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks,
where the use is in relation to goods in such a way as to affect or to be
liable to affect the functions of the mark.

Should that be the case, Article 6(1)(a) of Directive 89/104 can
operate as a bar to such use being prevented only if the use by the
third party of his company name or trade name is in accordance with
honest practices in industrial or commercial matters.

(1) OJ C 74, 25.3.2006.

Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 20 September
the European Communities v
2007 — Commission of

Hellenic Republic

(Case C-74/06) (1)

to

fulfil

of a Member State

(Failure
obligations —
Article 90 EC — Registration tax on imported second-hand
cars — Determination of taxable value — Depreciation of
vehicles based solely on age — Publicising of criteria of calcu-
lation — Possibility of challenging the application of the fixed
method of calculation)

(2007/C 269/22)

Language of the case: Greek

Referring Party

Cour d'appel de Nancy

Parties

Applicant: Commission of the European Communities (repre-
sented by: D. Triantafyllou, acting as Agent)