French Intellectual Property Code

The rights attached to a trademark are transferable in whole or in part, regardless of the person who exploits them or causes them to be exploited. The transfer of these rights, even in part, may not include any territorial limitation. The total transfer of the business, including in application of a contractual obligation, entails the transfer of the rights attached to the trademark, unless there is an agreement to the…

The author of an application for registration or the proprietor of a registered trade mark may renounce the effects of that application or registration in respect of all or some of the goods or services to which the trade mark applies.

The registration of a trademark shall be declared invalid by court decision or by decision of the Director General of the National Institute of Industrial Property, pursuant to Article L. 411-4, if the trademark does not meet the conditions set out in Articles L. 711-2, L. 711-3, L. 715-4 and L. 715-9.

The rights of the proprietor of a trademark pursuant to Articles L. 714-5, L. 714-6, L. 715-5 and L. 715-10 shall be declared forfeited by a court decision or by a decision of the Director General of the Institut national de la propriété industrielle. .

A trademark owner who, without good reason, has not made genuine use of the trademark for the goods or services for which it is registered for an uninterrupted period of five years shall forfeit his rights. The starting point for this period shall be the date of registration of the trademark at the earliest, in accordance with the procedures specified by a decree of the Council of State. Use within…

The rights of the proprietor of a trade mark which has become: a) The common name in the trade of the product or service; b) Likely to mislead, in particular as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the product or service, shall be revoked.

Any transfer or modification of the rights attached to a trade mark must, in order to be enforceable against third parties, be entered in the National Trade Mark Register. However, before it is entered, an act is enforceable against third parties who acquired rights after the date of that act but who were aware of it when those rights were acquired. A licensee who is a party to a licence…

Owners of trade marks reproducing or imitating the emblem of the Third Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem, or the name of that emblem, may continue to exploit their rights provided that they were acquired before 8 December 2005 and that their use cannot appear, in time of armed conflict, to be intended to confer protection…