Do you know when a trademark registration is considered to be in a bad faith?
This is a situation where somebody registers a trademark not to use it, but to harm others, block competition or profit from others’ reputation. Such registration constitutes grounds for invalidation of a trademark.
An example of such behaviour is the Hasbro case concerning the Monopoly trademark. The company repeatedly applied for the same trademark at the European Union Intellectual Property Office to avoid the obligation to prove genuine use of earlier registrations.
The General Court ruled that re-registering an identical trademark is not prohibited in itself, but constitutes an act of bad faith if it serves to circumvent the obligation to demonstrate genuine use of the earlier trademark.
Therefore, remember that trademark registration is not just a business strategy – your honest intention to use the trademark also counts, and any attempts to ‘circumvent the system’ may result in the invalidation of your protection rights!
