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Oppositions
The Appeal Board is competent to consider disputes arising before grant of
patent or registration certificate for a trademark or a design.
In case of an opposition against a national registration of a design or trademark
the Appeal Board notifies the applicant (or his local representative) about
it. The latter has to submit motivated objections to the opposition within
3 months from the date of the filing the opposition notice, otherwise the
Board is allowed to consider the case in his absence. The procedure with regard
to International trademark registrations is the same, however the period for
a motivated response is 5 months.
Oppositions are considered by the SPB Appeal Board during oral hearings where
both parties (or their representatives) produce their evidences and arguments.
If any of the parties fails to attend the hearing, the case will be considered
in the absence of that party.
Oppositions can be filed on absolute and/or relative grounds.
Though the range of issues falling into the competence of the Appeal Board
is limited as compared with that of the court, opposing is an efficient instrument
of invalidation of a conflicting registration, at least, for two reasons:
- an opposition may push the other party to seek a peaceful settlement. According
to our statistics over 40 % of oppositions were withdrawn by the opposers
either after withdrawal of the opposed mark or after limitation of the list
of goods in the opposed mark;
- opposing is less costly than court litigation.
Decisions of the SPB Appeal Board may be appealed before the Vilnius District
Court. An appeal may be brought within 6 months from the date of the Appeal
Board decision.
Foreign persons not having residence in the European Community will have to
appoint a local representative/advocate fro representation before the SPB
or the court.
On our Recent
Cases page you may find our review of the opposition cases we think to
be worth your attention.
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INTELS-LITHUANIA |
