CARMEN: single and genuine

The Maritime and Commercial Court has ruled that the single use of a trademark constitutes 'genuine use' for the purposes of Article 25 of the Danish Trademarks Act. As a result, a trademark cannot be struck off the register for not being used extensively.

Article 25 provides:

"If, within a period of five years following the date of the completion of the registration procedure, the proprietor has not put the trademark to genuine use in [Denmark] in connection with the goods or services in respect of which it is registered, or if such use has been suspended during an uninterrupted period of five years, the registration may be revoked […] unless there are proper reasons for non-use."

The case before the court concerned an English company that owns the trademark CARMEN, which has long been registered for certain goods in Denmark (Case UfR.2002.1583). However, in the five years prior to the case, the trademark was used by its owner in Denmark only once.

The court ruled that the single use of the trademark constitutes 'genuine use' for the purposes of Article 25. The court rejected a claim that the trademark should be deleted from the Trademarks Register as it had not been used extensively. 'Genuine use' is not synonymous with 'extensive use', ruled the court.

Mads Marstrand-Jorgensen, Norsker & Jacoby, Copenhagen