COMING SHORTLY ...

Coming shortly ...

Tomorrow the Court of First Instance of the European Communities gives judgment in three appeals from the OHIM Boards of Appeal relating to Community trade marks. They are

* Case T-188/04 Freixenet v OHIM , an appeal against refusal to register in Class 33 a frosted black matt bottle.

* Case T-190/04 Freixenet v OHIM , ditto, but this bottle is white and polished, not black and frosted.

* Case T-96/05 Monte di Massima v OHIM - Höfferle Internationale (Valle della Luna): this is an appeal against the Board of Appeal decision to set aside the Opposition Division's decision to refuse the opposition brought by the owner of the national word mark VALLE DE LA LUNA for sparkling wines against an applicant to register a figurative mark containing the words "Valle della Luna" for beers.

The IPKat hopes to bring news of all these cases when they emerge. His bet is that the two bottle appeals will fail; the Valle de la Luna case involves issues of proof of use of the earlier mark and, without hearing the arguments on the issues, he thinks it's too close to call.

European Court of Justice diary here