French Intellectual Property Code

I.- Applications for invalidation of trademarks based on Articles L. 711-2, L. 715-4 and L. 715-9 shall be filed with the National Institute of Industrial Property by any natural person or legal entity. They may be brought by any interested party before the judicial courts determined by regulation. II. II – Applications for invalidation of trade marks on the basis of Article L. 711-3 may only be brought before the…

The application for a declaration of invalidity may relate to some or all of the goods or services for which the contested mark is registered. An application for a declaration of invalidity may be based on one or more grounds. Provided they belong to the same proprietor, such an application may be based on several earlier rights.

The invalidity decision has absolute effect. Where the grounds for invalidity affect the registration of a trade mark only in part, only a partial invalidity shall be granted.

The following are inadmissible: 1° An application for a declaration of invalidity brought by the proprietor of an earlier trade mark which has been registered for more than five years at the date of the application for a declaration of invalidity who, at the request of the proprietor of the later trade mark, does not prove: That a) That the earlier trade mark has been put to genuine use in…

The following shall be inadmissible: 1° An application for a declaration of invalidity based on an earlier trade mark where the proprietor of the earlier registered trade mark does not establish, at the request of the proprietor of the later trade mark, that on the date of filing or on the priority date of that later trade mark, the earlier trade mark, which is liable to be declared invalid on…

An application for a declaration of invalidity filed on the basis of 2°, 3° and 4° of Article L. 711-2 shall be dismissed where the proprietor of the contested trade mark can establish that the trade mark had acquired, through use, a distinctive character prior to the date of the application for a declaration of invalidity.

Subject to articles L. 716-2-7 and L. 716-2-8, an action or application for a declaration of invalidity of a trademark shall not be subject to any limitation period.

An action or application for a declaration of invalidity brought by the proprietor of a well-known trademark within the meaning of Article 6bis of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property shall be barred after five years from the date of registration, unless the registration was applied for in bad faith. .

The proprietor of an earlier right who has tolerated for a period of five consecutive years the use of a later trade mark registered with knowledge of such use shall no longer be entitled to apply for a declaration of invalidity of the later trade mark on the basis of Article L. 711-3, in respect of the goods or services for which the use of the trade mark was tolerated,…