Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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. |

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