Judicial protest over trademark violation

Lancaster Group GmbH (Lancaster) filed a judicial protest against KOSECP (Distribution & Business Services) Ltd in the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming that its proprietary rights to a trademark had been violated.

Lancaster declared its ownership of the trademarks Davidoff Cool Water, Davidoff Cool Water Deep and Davidoff Echo Man, which trademarks are registered in a number of countries. On the other hand, respondent company was advertising and selling these products on the local market.

With regards to Davidoff Cool Water Woman EdT, Lancaster had intended the product for sale outside the EU, however the respondent company was selling it locally, contrary to the intentions of the protesting company.

Lancaster insisted that a well-established principle is that the proprietor of a trademark could only lose his rights over a trademark, if the product in question had been introduced into Malta or any other EU state with the owner's consent.

Lancaster submitted that it had not lost its rights in respect of the product Davidoff Cool Water Woman EdT in Malta or in the EU, and that the distribution of this product by respondent company in Malta was in violation of Lancaster's rights.

The protesting company also pointed out that another violation by the respondent company was related to the distribution of the other products - Cool Water, Cool Water Deep and Echo Man in Malta. Lancaster declared that the respondent company had deleted the products' batch numbers in express violation of EU law.

In its protect, Lancaster called upon respondent company to cease and desist from committing such illegal actions and has held it liable in damages.

February 2006