Trademark Functions in European Union Law - Also Containing a Comment on CJEU case C-129/17, Mitsubishi v. Duma

24 Pages Posted: 31 Jul 2019

See all articles by Annette Kur

Annette Kur

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

Date Written: July 24, 2019

Abstract

The doctrine of trademark functions was developed and discussed under national law long before the CJEU elaborated its much-criticized approach towards the issue. However, the Court readily embraced the concept of functions in order to expand the limits of trademark law into what was previously considered as forming part of unfair competition law, thus creating a fairly consolidated body of case law combining elements of trademark law and unfair commercial practices. While the results of that strategy, all in all, can be evaluated positively, the CJEU’s utilization of the functions doctrine is flawed where, as in Mitsubishi, it results in blatant disregard for the limits of legal harmonization that has been achieved so far.

Keywords: Trademark Functions, CJEU, unfair competition law, removal of trademarks

Suggested Citation

Kur, Annette, Trademark Functions in European Union Law - Also Containing a Comment on CJEU case C-129/17, Mitsubishi v. Duma (July 24, 2019). Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 19-06, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3425839 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3425839

Annette Kur (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition ( email )

Marstallplatz 1
Munich, Bayern 80539
Germany

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,204
Abstract Views
3,231
Rank
34,213
PlumX Metrics