Lo Oberster Gerichtshof  (Austria) ha chiesto alla Corte di Giustizia UE interpretare l’art. 5.3 del Reg. 44/2001 quando l’illecito è relativo all’uso di un marchio tramite Internet.

La regola contenuta nell’art. 5.3 è la seguente “La persona domiciliata nel territorio di uno Stato membro può essere convenuta in un altro Stato membro: … 3) in materia di illeciti civili dolosi o colposi, davanti al giudice del luogo in cui l’evento dannoso è avvenuto o può avvenire“.

La Corte ha formulato il seguente quesito.

“1. In the case of an alleged infringement by a person established in another Member State of a trade mark granted in the State of the court seized through the use of a keyword (AdWord) identical to that trade mark in an internet search engine which offers its services under various country-specific top-level domains, is the phrase “the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur” in Article 5(3) of Regulation 44/2001 (“Brussels I”) is to be interpreted as meaning that;

1.1. jurisdiction is established only if the keyword is used on the search engine website the opt-level domain of which is that of the State of the court seized;

1.2. jurisdiction is established only if the search engine website on which the keyword is used can be accessed in the State of the court seized;

1.3. jurisdiction is dependent on the satisfaction or other requirements additional to the accessibility of the website?

2. If Question1.3 is answered in the affirmative: Which criteria are to be used to determine whether jurisdiction under Article 5(3) of Brussels I is established where a trade mark granted in the State of the course seized is used as an AdWord on a search engine website with a country-specific top-level domain different from that of the State of the court seized?”

Il caso è stato iscritto con il numero C-523/10, ma non sono ancora disponibili altre informazioni che quelle rese pubbliche dallo UK Intellectual Property Office alla pagina http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-policy/policy-information/ecj/ecj-2010/ecj-2010-c52310.htm

Non appena saranno disponibili altre notizie, avrete novità!

Altri articoli sul tema

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2010/12/trade-marks-adwords-and-location-of.html

http://husovec.blogspot.com/2010/12/another-keyword-advertising-reference.html