Although the European harmonization of trademark law started more than
two decades ago and is now quite robust, heretofore practitioners have
had no easily accessible and comprehensive description and analysis of
this regime to rely upon in their work, despite the existence of
commentaries of the Directive and Regulation on trademarks. Now,
European Trademark Law describes all relevant developments in both
legislation and case law, in particular of the Court of Justice,
offering not only a succinct introduction to the theory, structure and
nature of trademark law, but also insightful suggestions for resolving
and answering a host of practical problems.
As the authors note, their book provides an overview of trademark law rather than an overview of trademark legislation. The authors view the law from different perspectives; they take both the European perspective and the perspective from harmonized national trademark law, in particular as it is in the Benelux countries.
Paying particular attention to the implications of the considerable stream of case law that has followed from partially new doctrines set in place by the harmonization process, the book greatly clarifies the workings and interrelations of such factors as the following:
- situations that did not constitute infringement under former trademark law but do constitute infringement today and vice versa
- different types of marks and their particularities
- registration and opposition procedures
- relevant international treaties
- requirements for the mark
- grounds for refusal and invalidity
- scope of and limitations to trademark protection
- use of trademarks in comparative advertising;
- referential use of trademarks
- use of trademarks on the internet
- how trademark rights
are lost.