It just a few months ago that this blog reported on the Opinion of Advocate General Tanchev in the Sky v SkyKick, C-371/18 case.

A referral from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales made by Arnold J (as he then was), the Sky case is probably the most important referral in the EU trade mark field made over the past few years. It asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to clarify:

This morning, the CJEU handed down its judgment, ruling as follows:

• A EU or national trade mark cannot be declared wholly or partially invalid on the ground that terms used to designate the goods and services in respect of which that trade mark was registered lack clarity and precision;
• A trade mark application made without any intention to use the trade mark in relation to the goods and services covered by the registration constitutes bad faith, if the applicant for registration of that mark had the intention either of undermining, in a manner inconsistent with honest practices, the interests of third parties, or of obtaining, without even targeting a specific third party, an exclusive right for purposes other than those falling within the functions of a trade mark. 
• When the absence of the intention to use the trade mark in accordance with the essential functions of a trade mark concerns only certain goods or services referred to in the application for registration, that application constitutes bad faith only in so far as it relates to those goods or services; 
• EU law does not preclude a provision of national law under which an applicant for registration of a trade mark must state that the trade mark is being used in relation to the goods and services in relation to which it is sought to register the trade mark, or that he or she has a bona fide intention that it should be so used, in so far as the infringement of such an obligation does not constitute, in itself, a ground for invalidity of a trade mark already registered.