Permissible restriction of the transfer on succession of the resale right to the artist's heirs: Article 6(1) of Directive 2001/84 must be interpreted as not precluding a provision of national law which reserves the benefit of the resale right to the artist’s heirs at law alone, to the exclusion of testa-mentary...

Reach-through claim, also directed to future inventions: Patent protection limited to actual disclosed contribution to the art. Insufficient disclosure: In the absence of any selection rule in the application in suit, the skilled person, without the possibility of having recourse to his common general knowledge, must...

Use of trade marks as keywords in search engine advertising service: That the proprietor of a trade mark is entitled to prohibit an advertiser from advertising, on the basis of a keyword identical with that trade mark which that advertiser has. No use of the sign by internet referecing service provider. Internet...

Communication to the public: The hotelier, by installing televisions in his hotel rooms and by connecting them to the central antenna of the hotel, thereby, and without more, carries out an act of communication to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of...

Rules requiring a 'joueur espoir' are a restriction on freedom of movement for workers: Rules according to which a ‘joueur espoir’, at the end of his training period, is required, under pain of being sued for damages, to sign a professional contract with the club which trained him are likely to discourage that player...

‘Color Edition’ is normal construction of words: The association of the terms ‘color’ and ‘edition’ was not unusual but a normal construction in light of the lexical rules of the English language and the mark did not therefore create an impression sufficiently far removed from that produced by the simple juxtaposition...

Excluded from patentability: method for treatment by surgery: A claimed imaging method, in which, when carried out, maintaining the life and health of the subject is important and which comprises or encompasses an invasive step representing a substantial physical intervention on the body which requires professional...

Second medical indication need not be treatment of another disease. Dosage regimes: The claimed definition of the dosage regime must not only be verbally different from what was described in the state of the art but also reflect a different technical teaching. Swiss type claims no longer necessary. Freedom of medical...

Members of TNF-ligand superfamily not “capable of industrial application”: No plausible (at least in the sense of reasonably credible) use for any member of the superfamily. Authority of decisions of the Technical Boards of Appeal: We follow any principle of law clearly laid down by them, only reserving the right to...

Advertising slogan can be a mark: Distinctive character advertising message: In particular, where those marks are not merely an ordinary advertising message, but possess a certain originality or resonance, requiring at least some interpretation by the relevant public, or setting off a cognitive process in the minds of...

Application of the Directive regarding unfair commercial practices: Scope ratione materiae which extends to any commercial practice directly connected with the promotion, sale or supply of a product to consumers. Prohibition in principle of commercial practices which make the participation in a lottery conditional on...

Transfer of opposition: The status as an opponent cannot be freely transferred.A legal person who was a subsidiary of the opponent when the opposition was filed and who carries on the business to which the opposed patent relates cannot acquire the status as opponent if all its shares are assigned to another company.

Trade mark with a reputation
The territory of the Member State in question may be considered to constitute a substantial part of the territory of the Community.

Prohibition of legitimate foreign operators from offering games of chance via the internet: that Article 49 EC does not preclude legislation of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which prohibits operators such as Bwin, which are established in other Member States, in which they lawfully...

Dominant figurative element: The Court of First Instance thus attributed to the figurative element of the marks at issue the character of a dominant element in relation to the other elements comprising those marks, in particular the word element. That enabled it correctly to base its assessment on the similarity of the...

No adverse affect Geographical Indications Regulation 1347/2001 on pre-existing Bavaria trademarks. Geographical Indications Regulation 1347/2001 valid.