CELEX: C2004/071/59
Language: en
Date: 2004-03-20 00:00:00
Title: Case T-442/03: Action brought on 31 December 2003 by SIC-Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, S.A. against the Commission of the European Communities

20.3.2004             EN                         Official Journal of the European Union                                             C 71/31
The applicant claims that the Court should:                                                             and certain goods and services in
                                                                                                        Class 42 (hospitals, convalescent
                                                                                                        homes, sanatoriums; medical,
—     annul the contested decision (1) in so far as it refused                                          hygienic and beauty care; medical
      application No 1 358 480 for registration of a Com-                                               research, bacteriology and chemi-
      munity trade mark;                                                                                cal research; development of
                                                                                                        medicines, foodstuffs with phar-
—     grant application No 1 358 480 for registration of a                                              maceutical properties and other
      Community trade mark;                                                                             health care products, and con-
                                                                                                        ducting medical and clinical
                                                                                                        examinations, consultancy and
—     in the alternative, refer the case back to the Board of                                           support for others for these activi-
      Appeal so that it may give a ruling on the matter;                                                ties; scientific and industrial
                                                                                                        research, in particular medical,
                                                                                                        bacteriological      or    chemical
—     order the defendant Office to pay the costs.                                                      research; opticians’ services; con-
                                                                                                        sultancy for health care pro-
                                                                                                        fessionals in the development,
                                                                                                        establishing and conducting of
                                                                                                        therapy programmes and the test-
                                                                                                        ing of the aforesaid therapy pro-
Pleas in law and main arguments                                                                         grammes by means of studies).
                                                                                                        Dismissal of the opponent’s
                                                                                                        appeal as to the remainder.
Applicant for Com-            The applicant
munity trade mark:                                                       Pleas in law:                  —     No likelihood of confusion
                                                                                                              within the meaning of
Community trade mark          The figurative mark ‘AMS                                                        Article 8(1) and (2) of Regu-
sought:                       Advanced Medical Services’ for                                                  lation (EC) No 40/94.
                              goods and services in Classes 5,
                              10 and 42 — Application No                                                —     No evidence of use of the
                              1 358 480.                                                                      opposed marks in the Euro-
                                                                                                              pean Community justifying
                                                                                                              refusal of the application.
Proprietor of mark or         American Medical Systems, Inc.
sign cited in the oppo-
sition proceedings:                                                      (1) Decision of the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for
                                                                             Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs)
                                                                             in Case R 671/2002-4.
Mark or sign cited in         The UK word mark ‘AMS’
opposition:                   (No 2 061 585), the figurative
                              mark ‘American Medical System’
                              registered in several States of the
                              European Union and the regis-
                              tered     word      marks      ‘AMS
                              AMBICOR’, ‘AMS SECURO-T’ and
                              ‘AMERICAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS’
                              for goods in Class 10.
                                                                         Action brought on 31 December 2003 by SIC-Sociedade
                                                                         Independente de Comunicação, S.A. against the Com-
Decision of the Oppo-         Refusal of the trade mark appli-                       mission of the European Communities
sition Division:              cation in respect of goods in
                              Class 10. Rejection of the oppo-
                              sition in so far as the application                                (Case T-442/03)
                              concerns goods and services in
                              Classes 5 and 42.
                                                                                                  (2004/C 71/59)
Decision of the Board of      Refusal of the trade mark appli-
Appeal:                       cation in respect of certain goods                          (Language of the case: Portuguese)
                              in Class 5 (Pharmaceutical, vet-
                              erinary and sanitary preparations;
                              dietetic substances adapted for
                              medical use; plasters, materials for
                              dressings; material for stopping           An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
                              teeth, dental wax; disinfectants)          ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
 ---pagebreak--- C 71/32                 EN                         Official Journal of the European Union                                           20.3.2004
European Communities on 31 December 2003 by SIC-                           into account, as investment costs, sums relating to the
Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, S.A, established in                 acquisition of assets when the auditors confirmed that there
Carnaxide (Portugal), represented by Carlos Botelho Moniz,                 was not even any evidence that the assets actually existed.
Eduardo Maia Cadete and Margarida Rosado da Fonseca,
lawyers, with an address for service at Rua Castilho, 75, 1o,
1250-068, Lisbon (Portugal).                                               The applicant argues that the fact that certain measures were
                                                                           found not to constitute State aid within the meaning of
                                                                           Article 87(1) EC amounted to an error of law. Those measures
The applicant claims that the Court should:                                included the exemption from paying fees and emoluments,
                                                                           postponement of the payment of fees for the use of the
annul the decision of the European Communities C(2003)                     television broadcasting network and a bond issue.
3526 (final) of 15 October 2003 on ad-hoc measures applied
to RTP by Portugal.
                                                                           The applicant also claims that the decision errs in law as
                                                                           regards the application of Article 86(2) EC, given that the
                                                                           Portuguese Government did not award public service television
Pleas in law and main arguments                                            broadcasting to RTP on the basis of a transparent and non-
                                                                           discriminatory procedure.
1.    Breach of the duty to act diligently and impartially;
                                                                           Furthermore, the Commission did not observe the criteria for
2.    Errors of fact;                                                      applying Article 86(2), which it laid down itself in the
                                                                           ‘Communication on the application of State aid rules to public
3.    No basis for the finding in the contested decision on                service broadcasting’. The applicant also maintains that, as
      ‘investment costs’;                                                  regards the supply by RTP of a public service, the Commission’s
                                                                           decision is not founded on any documentary evidence as to
4.    Error of law concerning the failure to classify certain              whether RTP actually fulfilled the public-service obligations
      measures as State aid;                                               laid upon it by the State, since, in practice, the facts of the case
                                                                           suggest that, as regards the relevant period, the service which
5.    Error of law as to the conditions for the application of             RTP was contractually bound to provide was not properly
      Article 86(2) EC.                                                    supplied.
As regards the breach of the duty of diligence, the applicant
maintains that the contested decision represented the final
stage in the Commission’s failure to act transparently, impar-
tially and diligently in the way it conducted the procedure
culminating in the adoption of the decision, which was
conducted throughout with a view to justifying the unjustifia-
ble and omitting facts essential for the purpose of an accurate            Action brought on 2 January 2004 by Cemender Kork-
analysis of the way in which RTP ‘fulfilled’ its public service            maz, The Corner House and the Kurdish Human Rights
obligations. It submits that the Commission did not act                    Project against the Commission of the European Com-
neutrally and failed to maintain an equal distance between the                                          munities
interests in play, since it did not thoroughly weigh up the
legally protected interests prior to taking action.
                                                                                                    (Case T-2/04)
In relation to the errors of fact, the applicant maintains, in
particular, that no regard was had to the additional assistance                                    (2004/C 71/60)
granted by the State to the public operator in 1998, whilst
sums which had not been verified by independent auditors
were taken into account as ‘investment costs’. In the applicant’s                            (Language of the case: English)
submission, the Commission also failed to check that RTP had
actually fulfilled its public service obligations.
The applicant claims that there is no basis for taking the                 An action against the Commission of the European Communi-
‘investment costs’ into account in the contested decision, since           ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
the Commission fails to state the reasons why it took the                  European Communities on 2 January 2004 by Cemender
relevant sums into account in its final decision and why it,               Korkmaz, Flers, (France), The Corner House, Newton, (United
inconsistently, did not take into account the sums in RTP’s                Kingdom), and the Kurdish Human Rights Project, London,
‘Reports on the Public Service’ but those in RTP’s financial               (United Kingdom), represented by P. Moser, Barrister, and
accounts. It also fails to explain why it was possible to take             A. Stock, lawyer, with an address for service in Luxembourg.