The First Cancellation Division considered what would count as bad faith in an application for a trade mark: ‘Bad faith is a narrow legal concept in the CTMR system. Bad faith is the opposite of good faith, generally implying or involving, but not limited to actual or constructive fraud, or a design to mislead or deceive another, or any other sinister motive. Conceptually, bad faith can be understood as a ‘dishonest intention’. This means that bad faith may be interpreted as unfair practices involving lack of any honest intention on the part of the applicant of the CTM at the time of filing. Example: if it can be shown that the parties concerned had been in contact, for instance at an exhibition in the respective trade, and where then one party filed an application for a CTM consisting of the other party’s brand, there would be reason to conclude bad faith. In this case, however, according to the meaning of the term ‘bad faith’, there is no evidence that Senso di Donna Vertribes – GmbH was acting dishonestly or that they intended any similar act, or were involved in unfair practices or the like.’
Citations:
[2001] ETMR 5, C0006716979/1
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Harrison v Teton Valley Trading Co; Harrison’s Trade Mark Application (CHINAWHITE) CA 27-Jul-2004
The applicant had been an employee of the objector at their nightclub ‘Chinawhite’ and whose principal attraction was a cocktail of the same name. Employees signed a confidentiality agreement as to the recipe. Having left the employment, the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Intellectual Property
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.200438