Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-21-Speech-2-757"
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"en.20100921.25.2-757"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, trademarks are of real importance in modern commerce. They enable the origin of products and services to be identified, they guarantee a constant level of quality, and they convey the image of the business. Access to the Community trademark is an issue for the development of our businesses and for the fight against counterfeiting.
You are concerned at the decisions taken by certain national trademark offices. These decisions would seek to limit the use of the Community trademark by invoking a requirement under which the use of a Community trademark in only one Member State would not constitute genuine use thereof. I should like to thank those Members who have drawn the Commission’s attention to this matter, which we are following very closely.
The great merit of the Community trademark is, in fact, to offer all businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, an effective means of protecting their trademarks at European level. Until now, the rule that all genuine use of a Community trademark by the owner is sufficient, regardless of where in the Union it is used, has always been considered by its users as one of its principal advantages. This rule is consistent with the unitary character of the Community trademark. It is also consistent with the very principle of the single market. Any new restriction on the use of the Community trademark could therefore have serious consequences for the fight against counterfeiting, which will be one of the particular subjects – and I point this out to Parliament again – of the draft Single Market Act, and of the Commission’s commitment to an action plan against piracy and counterfeiting.
What are these consequences? First, the introduction of a new requirement that could put a brake on the fight against trademark infringements. The Community trademark is an effective weapon in the fight against counterfeiting, as I have just said, because it provides unfailing protection across the whole of the Union and at all of its external frontiers. It is indispensable for enabling the seizure of counterfeit goods – which are currently being imported in massive amounts from third countries – under the Community customs regulations at the external frontiers of our Union.
Besides, the introduction of such a requirement could make access to the Community trademark more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises and for start-ups. These companies often operate at national level and do not begin exporting, and expanding their activities cross-border, until their business has proved itself to be successful. It could thus become more difficult for these businesses to grow, if they were no longer in a position to obtain and use a Community trademark before expanding their activities. This would also be contrary to a number of our policies that rightly seek to encourage the development of small and medium-sized enterprises which, I remind you, constitute 95% of all European businesses.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I want to confirm to you, or assure you, that my services will follow these developments in the Member States very closely. At this stage, we are confident that the national courts will not uphold these decisions, which we feel do not comply with the unitary character of the Community trademark and with the principles of the single market, as I have already said."@en1
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