Article 50: Grounds for revocation
1. The rights of the proprietor of the Community trade mark shall be declared to be revoked on application to the Office or on the basis of a counterclaim in infringement proceedings:
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zappa community tm regulation provisions
The widow of Frank Zappa filed a trademark infringement claim, on behalf of a trust to administer the legacy of Frank Zappa who died in 1993. The claim included three defendants in Germany, one who owned and operated the domain name www.zappanale.de. The primary defendant, was an association founded in 1993, and as of that year, took over the organization of an annual festival “Zappanale”. The second defendant was the president of the association. The plaintiff sought that all defendants cease their use of the name ‘Zappa’.
The plaintiff challenged the use by the defendants of the name ZAPPA for the festival and the website. Plaintiff based this claim on their community trademark no. 001933944 for the verbal mark ‘ZAPPA’ applied for on November 1, 2000 and registered August 1, 2002. Additionally, the association was sued to prevent the sale of merchandise using a figurative trademark claimed to infringe the plaintiffs’ rights in the German figurative mark applied for March 24, 1994 and registered on April 26, 1995. The defendants alleged non-use and the court of first instance agreed, dismissing the compliant and counterclaim.
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