CELEX: C2000/259/52
Language: en
Date: 2000-09-09 00:00:00
Title: Case T-173/00: Action brought on 28 June 2000 by KWS Saat AG against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs)

9.9.2000              EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                         C 259/29
Action brought on 28 June 2000 by KWS Saat AG against                   Action brought on 4 July 2000 by Jan Pflugradt against
the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market                                        the European Central Bank
                  (Trade Marks and Designs)
                                                                                                  (Case T-178/00)
                        (Case T-173/00)
                        (2000/C 259/52)                                                          (2000/C 259/53)
                  (Language of the case: German)
                                                                                           (Language of the case: German)
An action against the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal
Market (Trade Marks and Designs) was brought before the                 An action against the European Central Bank was brought
Court of First Instance of the European Communities on                  before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities
28 June 2000 by KWS Saat AG, of Einbeck (Federal Republic               on 4 July 2000 by Jan Pflugradt, residing in Frankfurt am Main
of Germany), represented by Gert Würtenberger, Rechtsanwalt,            (Federal Republic of Germany), represented by Norbert Pflüger,
of Wuesthoff & Wuesthoff, Munich (Federal Republic of                   Regina Steiner and Silvia Mittländer, Rechtsanwälte, Frankfurt
Germany).                                                               am Main (Federal Republic of Germany).
The applicant claims that the Court should:
                                                                        The applicant claims that the Court should:
—     refer the matter back for further consideration to the
      Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the            (1) order the European Central Bank to revoke the applicant’s
      Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs);                              staff Report for 1999 and to remove it from his personal
                                                                              file without replacing it with any other document;
      alternatively,
—     annul the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of               (2) order the European Central Bank to have a new staff
                                                                              report drawn up for the applicant for 1999 by other,
      19 April 2000 in the appeal proceedings registered under
      No R 282/1999-2 concerning application No 000 773                       unbiased persons;
      630 for registration as a Community trade mark of the
      colour mark ‘Orange’, declare the mark to be registerable,        (3) order the European Central Bank, pursuant to contract,
      and direct the Office to register the mark in the register              to provide the applicant with work corresponding to
      of Community trade marks.                                               the activities forming the subject-matter of his job
                                                                              description;
Pleas in law and main arguments                                         (4) to (7) order the European Central Bank to assign to the
                                                                                     applicant a series of specific responsibilities;
The trade mark con-           Colour mark ‘Orange’ (HKS7) —
cerned:                       application No 773 630
                                                                        (8) declare that the European Central Bank is obliged to
Goods or service con-         Goods and services in Classes 7,                provide the applicant with work corresponding to the
cerned:                       11, 31 and 42 (inter alia, prep-                activities set out in his job description and, in so doing,
                              aration equipment for seeds, agri-              to have regard to the contractually defined activities
                              cultural and forestry products)                 forming the subject-matter of points (4) to (7) of his
                                                                              application;
Decision         contested    Refusal of registration by the
before the Board of           examiner                                  (9) order the defendant to pay the costs.
Appeal:
Grounds of claim:             — incorrect reasons for the
                                  decision of the Board of              Pleas in law and main arguments
                                  Appeal
                              — legally erroneous finding by            The applicant is an employee of the ECB. He contests the
                                  the Board of Appeal that the          validity in law of a staff report prepared by one of his superiors
                                  mark has no distinctive               for the year 1999 and claims that a fresh staff report should
                                  character                             be drawn up for that period. He maintains that his staff report
                              — legally incorrect acceptance by         contains incorrect statements which prejudice his personal
                                  the Board of Appeal of the            rights and impede his advancement in his career. In addition,
                                  need for the term to be kept          the defendant has infringed the applicant’s contractual right to
                                  freely available for use by the       be provided with employment.
                                  world at large.