Case C-361/07: Order of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 16 January 2008 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil de prud'hommes de Beauvais (France)) — Olivier Polier v Najar EURL (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Convention No 158 of the International Labour Organisation — European Social Charter — Dismissal of an employee without valid reason — Manifest lack of jurisdiction of the Court)
Date: 2008-01-16
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: interpretation of the law, labour law, unfair dismissal, work contract

29.3.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 79/11

Order of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 16 January 2008
(reference for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil de
prud'hommes de Beauvais (France)) — Olivier Polier v
Najar EURL

(Case C-361/07) (1)

Appeal brought on 25 July 2007 by Focus Magazin Verlag
GmbH against the judgment of the Court of First Instance
(Third Chamber) delivered on 16 May 2007 in Case
T-491/04 Merant GmbH v Office for Harmonisation in the
Intervener:
Internal Market

(Trade Marks and Designs),

Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Charter of Funda-
mental Rights of the European Union — Convention No 158
of the International Labour Organisation — European Social
Charter — Dismissal of an employee without valid reason —
Manifest lack of jurisdiction of the Court)

(Case C-344/07 P)

(2008/C 79/20)

Language of the case: German

(2008/C 79/19)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Referring court

Other parties to the proceedings:

Appellant: Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH (represented by: M.
Herrmann and B. Müller, lawyers)

Conseil de prud'hommes de Beauvais (France)

Parties

Applicant: Olivier Polier

Defendant: Najar EURL

1. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market

(Trade

Marks and Designs)

2. Merant GmbH

Form of order sought

— set aside the judgment of the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities (Third Chamber) of 16 May 2007 in
Case T-491/04 and dismiss the action

Re:

Pleas in law and main arguments

the European Union (Articles 30 and 33),

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Conseil de Prud'Hommes
de Beauvais — Interpretation of the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of
the
European Social Charter (Articles 24 and 27) and Convention
No 158 of the International Labour Organisation on termina-
tion of employment — Dismissal of an employee without valid
reason — Whether national legislation is valid in the light of
the abovementioned provisions

Operative part of the order

The Court of Justice of the European Communities manifestly does not
have jurisdiction to answer the questions posed by the Conseil de
prud'hommes de Beauvais by decision of 9 July 2007.

(1) OJ C 269, 10.11.2007.

1. The judgment is based on an incorrect interpretation of
Article 8(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of
20 December 1993 on the Community trade mark (1) and
thus on a serious infringement of the intervener's/appellant's
rights.

2. The infringement is constituted by an incorrect and cursory
assessment of the facts on which the decision is based and
an extension of the scope of the expression ‘likelihood of
confusion’ for the purposes of Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation
No 40/94.

3. The Court of First Instance's interpretation that the concep-
tual content of the sign ‘MICRO FOCUS’ is ‘small focus’ is
not in accordance with the general principles governing the
issue of likelihood of confusion. The concept can only be
interpreted in that way if
the
German language are incorrectly applied. On the basis of
that interpretation of the sign ‘MICRO FOCUS’ the Court
arrived at
finding that only the figurative
element ‘Focus’ of the word/figurative sign ‘MICRO FOCUS’
should be compared with the sign ‘FOCUS’
in respect of
which registration is sought. Building on that interpretation,
the Court then erred in law in finding that there was a

the grammatical rules of

the incorrect