The EU Court has rejected the appeals presented by Apple against the decisions of the EUIPO – the European Union Intellectual Property Office – to revoke the ownership of the trademark Think Different, which Apple itself had recorded in Europe at the time of the famous advertising campaign. In 2016, Swatch submitted to the EUIPO three applications for revocation of the contested trademarks, arguing that the wording “Think Different had not been used for the products concerned for an uninterrupted period of five years”. The dispute arose when Swatch used it as a slogan in a campaign Tick Different.
The analysis
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The court stated that it “believes that Apple’s argument is based on a misreading of the contested decisions.” “The Commission did not deny the words Think Different distinctiveness “, he continued,” but it has given them a rather weak distinctiveness. “Not enough, however, to go in contrast with Tick Different. The ruling is also based on the fact that Apple has failed to prove that its trademark “was actually used for the products in question” in the five years preceding the lawsuit. Apple’s documentation on the use of the phrase predated “the relevant period of more than 10 years”. “An appeal may be lodged against the decision of the Court, limited only to questions of law, within two months and ten days from the notification of the decision itself. The appeal cannot be filed unless the Court first decides its admissibility. Consequently, it must be accompanied by a request to initiate proceedings, indicating the question or issues raised by the appeal that are significant as regards the unity, coherence or development of EU law “, reads the ruling of the Court of Justice.