Nissan: renewal requests to be full and timely filed

The renewal

Nissan owned a Community trade mark (CTM) in classes 7, 9 and 12 with a renewal date of 23 April 2011. On 27 January 2011, Nissan requested partial renewal of the CTM for all goods and services registered, except those in class 9.

The partial renewal was processed and notified to Nissan's trade mark agents in May 2011.

In July 2011, and within the six month grace period for late renewal, Nissan applied to late renew the CTM in class 9.

OHIM's decisions

Both OHIM's Administration Division and the Board of Appeal (BoA) dismissed Nissan's request for the late renewal of the CTM in class 9. The BoA held that the original request for partial renewal of the CTM in classes 7 and 12 only was an "unequivocal partial surrender" of the CTM which cannot be affected by the six month grace period allowed for late renewal.

Nissan appealed to the General Court (GC).

General Court ruling

The GC ruled that the BoA had erred in finding that a request for partial renewal of a CTM amounted to a surrender of the CTM for all goods/services not included in the renewal request. Specifically, the GC held:

• Any request for surrender of a CTM should be expressly made to OHIM in writing.
• A partial renewal request cannot be inferred as a request for partial surrender.
• A renewal request made by a trade mark agent does not equate to an express intention of a trade mark owner to surrender any of its rights.

Nissan no doubt believed its appeal would be upheld by the GC but alas – the GC found that despite the BoA's error, late renewal of the CTM in class 9 was not possible.

The GC held that the six month grace period provision only applies where there has been no request for renewal.

As Nissan had already requested partial renewal, it was not entitled to use the six month grace period to request renewal of the CTM in class 9 – the request should have been included at the time Nissan requested renewal of the CTM for classes 7 and 12.

In short

Requests for renewal must be made in full within the relevant renewal deadline.

If requests for partial renewal are made, it will not be possible to subsequently request that the 'missing' goods/services are renewed during the six month grace period.

Any request for surrender of a CTM must be made expressly in writing to OHIM.

Rights holders should carefully consider whether to renew a CTM in full or partially, as only one opportunity to renew will be granted.

Case details at a glance

Jurisdiction: European Union
Court: General Court
Parties: Nissan Jidosha KK v OHIM
Citation: T-572/12
Date: 04 March 2015
Full decision: http://dycip.com/t-57212