Hotel Cipriani SRL and others v Cipriani (Grosvenor Street) Ltd and others [2010] EWCA Civ 110
If an application to register a Community Trade Mark (CTM) was made in bad faith, then under Art 51(1)(b) of Council Regulation 40/9/EEC the registration was to be declared invalid. Attention was to be focused on the position at the time of the application for registration, and the intention and state of mind of the applicant at that time, although they were subjective factors, they were to be determined by reference to the objective circumstances of the particular case.
A CTM did not entitle the proprietor to prohibit a third party from using in the course of trade his own name or address, provided that the third party used them in accordance with honest practices in industrial or commercial matters. Using an established trading name might well satisfy the test of honest use, whereas to adopt a new corporate or trading name for a business which conflicted with an existing registered trade mark was unlikely to do so.
The mischief of a misleading name, was to be dealt with by reference
