Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

[**Avis juridique important**](../../../editorial/legal_notice.htm)

*|*

# 61991J0317

**Judgment of the Court of 30 November 1993. - Deutsche Renault AG v AUDI AG. - Reference for a preliminary ruling: Bundesgerichtshof - Germany. - Free movement of goods - Trade-mark law. - Case C-317/91.** 
  
*European Court reports 1993 Page I-06227  
 Swedish special edition Page I-00439  
 Finnish special edition Page I-00487*

  

[Summary](#SM)  
[Parties](#I1)  
[Grounds](#MO)  
[Decision on costs](#CO)  
[Operative part](#DI)

## Keywords

  
*++++

Free movement of goods ° Industrial and commercial property ° Trade-mark right ° Right of the proprietor of a mark consisting in a word in general use in the language of several Member States to oppose the use, for goods imported from another Member State, of a designation leading to confusion ° Permissibility ° Conditions

(EEC Treaty, Arts 30 and 36)*

## Summary

  
*It does not represent an unlawful restriction on intra-Community trade for the purposes of Articles 30 and 36 of the EEC Treaty if a subsidiary trading in Member State A of an automobile manufacturer established in Member State B is prohibited from using as a mark in Member State A the designation "Quadra", which the manufacturer has hitherto used without restriction for a four-wheel-drive motor vehicle, both in its own State and elsewhere, on the ground that another automobile manufacturer in Member State A claims ° validly under the internal law of Member State A ° a trade-mark right ("Warenzeichenrecht") and/or a right to a get-up ("Ausstattungsrecht") in the word "Quattro", with which the designation "Quadra" would create a risk of confusion, even though the word "Quattro" denotes a numeral in another Member State and that meaning is clearly discernible in other Member States, and even though the number 4 thereby designated plays a significant and varied role in automobile manufacturing and the automobile trade.

In the absence of unification or approximation of laws within the Community, the laying down of conditions for the protection of a designation such as "Quattro" and the establishment of criteria making it possible to determine the existence of a risk of confusion between two designations ° as to which Community law does not require a strict interpretation ° are a matter for national law, subject to the limits laid down by the second sentence of Article 36 of the Treaty.*

## Parties

[Top](#document1)