Report on the Board decision against
SCIO International
To whom it may concern
Re: SC SCIO International Srl has used the trademark including the word SCIO in bad faith
The Romanian SC SCIO International s.r.l has filed and obtained a figurative EU trademark Nr. 10683531.
INVALID
Against this trademark Mandelay Kft. filed an invalidity application, and the Cancellation Division of the EUIPO invalidated this trademark. In and appeal, the Fourth Board of Appeal of the EUIPO issued a decision on the same date rejecting the appeal based on the same grounds as the cancellation division.
The basic ground behind this decision was the fact that the owner of the trademark used to be an agent (distributor) of the original supplier of the SCIO biofeedback devices sold under the name SCIO, and the Romanian company acted in bad faith to use the name SCIO as a European trademark. Obviously, SCIO is the most distinctive element of the above copied trademark.
By this decision the third trademark of SC SCIO International s.r.l. was invalidated because of the previous attacks by Mandelay Kft., namely the trademark EDUCTOR-SCIO Nr. 011122256 and the SCIO CLASP 32, Nr. 10 970 606 were previously and finally cancelled.
As a summary, after about more then 10 years of trademark-conflicts and distortions of the market, Mandelay Kft. has become in a winning position and can prohibit illegal uses of is basic trademark SCIO.
DECISION of the Fourth Board of Appeal of 20 December 2023
S.C. SCIO International S.r.l.
