Any court authorized in preliminary injunction proceedings concerning EU trade marks and designs

For preliminary injunction proceedings on Community designs, the rightholder can go to any court in the Netherlands. This follows from a decision of the Court of Justice, which also applies to EU trademarks. In proceedings on the merits on EU trademarks and designs, the court of The Hague remains the only competent court.

What was the case? Pursuant to Article 81 of the Community Designs Regulation, each Member State of the European Union shall designate one or more courts having exclusive jurisdiction to rule on the infringement and validity of Community designs in all proceedings. The Dutch legislator designated the District Court of The Hague as the exclusively competent court for the Community design (and trademark). As a result, the District Court of The Hague has judges with experience in the field of Intellectual Property (designs, trademarks, copyright and patents).

So far reasonably clear, but now Article 90 of the Community Regulation: provisional and protected measures can be asked for before all courts of the Member State concerned, including the Community design courts. To put it simply: preliminary injunction proceedings. The Dutch legislator interpreted this article in such a way that the legislator could also designate a court exclusively for preliminary injunction proceedings. So that was the District Court of The Hague, both in proceedings on the merits and in preliminary injunction proceedings.

This broad interpretation of Article 90 raised questions. In the case (about playing balls), the District Court of Amsterdam considered itself competent to order an injunction of infringement (for the Netherlands) and to order a rectification. With the judgment of the Court of Justice of 21 November 2019, it became clear that the Court of Amsterdam was allowed to do so. Any Dutch court can (for the Netherlands) make a provisional order on the basis of EU trademarks and designs. However, many rightholders will continue to go to The Hague: only the District Court of The Hague can impose an injunction for the entire territory of the EU.

Lisanne Steenbergen