French Intellectual Property Code

The Institut national de la propriété industrielle shall observe and observe itself the principle of contradiction. It may not base its decision on pleas, explanations or documents put forward or produced by the parties without the latter having been given the opportunity to debate them in adversarial proceedings. The parties must expressly state their claims and the factual and legal arguments on which each of their claims is based. All…

An official of the National Institute of Industrial Property who has investigated an application for registration of a trade mark or an opposition filed against an application for registration of a trade mark may not investigate an application for cancellation or revocation of that same trade mark.

Any application for invalidity or revocation filed in violation of Article L. 716-5 or filed by a person who is not qualified or who does not satisfy the conditions set out in Articles R. 716-1 and R. 716-2 shall be declared inadmissible. However, such inadmissibility may only be invoked by the National Institute of Industrial Property after the applicant has been invited to complete the missing particulars and documents or…

Subject to inadmissibility being raised ex officio by the Institute and to the cases of suspension or closure of the proceedings provided for respectively in Articles R. 716-9 and R. 716-11, the application for invalidity or revocation shall be examined in accordance with the following procedure: 1° The application shall be notified to the proprietor of the contested mark. A period of two months shall be allowed for the proprietor…

The Director General of the Institute shall rule on the application for invalidity or revocation in the light of all the written and oral observations submitted, if any, by the parties. At any time during the proceedings, by express request: 1° The applicant for invalidity may waive one or more of the grounds invoked or limit the scope of his application to some of the goods or services invoked or…

The period mentioned in the last paragraph of Article L. 716-1 is three months. The date of the end of the examination phase referred to in the same article is notified without delay to the parties by the Director General of the Institute. This date occurs if a party has not submitted any observations by the end of the periods mentioned in Article R. 716-6 and, at the latest, on…

The investigation phase and the period mentioned in the first paragraph of article R. 716-8 may be suspended: 1° Where the application for a declaration of invalidity is based in whole or in part on an application for registration of a trade mark or geographical indication or on a geographical indication whose specification is the subject of an amendment affecting the basis of the application for a declaration of invalidity;…

Where administrative invalidity proceedings are suspended pursuant to the provisions of 1° of Article R. 716-9, they are resumed at the request of one of the parties or, where applicable, at the initiative of the Institute once the registration of the trademark or geographical indication or the approval or amendment of the specifications of the geographical indication has been noted. Where invalidity proceedings are suspended pursuant to the provisions of…

Proceedings for nullity or lapse are closed: 1° Where the applicant has withdrawn his application; 2° Where the applicant has lost his standing; 3° Where the application is moot as a result of an agreement between the parties ; 4° Where the effects of the trade mark against which the application has been made have ceased, unless the applicant shows a legitimate interest in obtaining a decision on the merits;…

The notification referred to in the last paragraph of Article L. 411-5 shall indicate the time limit for appeal, the manner in which it may be exercised and the names and addresses of the parties to the proceedings before the National Institute of Industrial Property. The time limits for appeal shall not be enforceable against the author of the appeal where the letter of notification does not include the indications…