On 3 August 2012, the County Court in Banská Bystrica (in proceedings no. 2Scud/2/2012, 2Scud/3/2012, 2Scud/4/2012, and 2Scud/5/2012) issued the decisions dismissing the actions filed by Der Grüne Punkt Duales System Deutschland GmbH Company to examine legitimacy of the decision and proceeding of the administrative authority.
By dismissal of the actions, the County Court approved justness of the decisions by the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic dated 21 December 2011 on partial revocation, for the territory of the Slovak Republic, of validity of “GREEN DOT” International Trademarks no. 585713, no. 585714, no. 653449, and no. 653450 for all goods falling under classes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34, for all services in class 36, and selected services in class 35 of the International Classification of Goods and Services. The Court has also maintained validity of the above mentioned Trademarks for all services falling under classes 39, 40, and 42, as well as selected services in class 35 of the International Classification of Goods and Services.
The above mentioned Court decisions approved that the owner (Der Grüne Punkt Duales System Deutschland GmbH) or the assignee (ENVI-PAK, a.s.) of the licence to the above mentioned Trademarks are not entitled to forbid third subjects, on the territory of the Slovak Republic, from using these Trademarks on goods, or marking the services as services falling under the classes to which the revocation relates, nor they are entitled to charge any fee for their use. In case the licence owner or the licensee mark their own services provided to third persons (e.g. in the field of collection, processing, and recycling of packing materials or related consulting) with these Trademarks, they are not entitled thereby to charge any fee for the use of the objective Trademarks. Use of the service (e.g. in the field of collection, processing, and recycling of packing materials or related consulting) by third persons does not represent the use of the Trademarks in categories in which they were maintained in validity by the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic.
In case of any payments for the use of the Green Dot Trademark, the payer is entitled to request return of the paid funds retroactively to the decision’s effective date, i.e. to 6 December 2007.
August 21st, .2012
