To whom it may concern
This report sheds light on the real ownership of the EU-wide trademarks SCIO and EDUCTOR
This report sheds light on the real ownership of the EU-wide trademarks SCIO and EDUCTOR
The biofeedback and bioresonance devices SCIO and EDUCTOR have long been used and liked by the suers overall in the EU. While their EU-wide medical device qualifications have always been owned by Mandelay Kft., the company QX World also distributed them and pretended as if they were the rightful owners and attacked the three European trademarks by the allegation of earlier use and filed later trademark applications, which all were opposed by Mandelay Kft.
These trademark disputes caused mixed reactions by the public and prohibited for the real owner to take active measured against the unlawful use.
The details of the trademark dispute are as follows:
The first EU trademark application for SCIO was made by Mandelay Kft. on 17/09/2012 in classes 10, 44 and the trademark was registered as 011191194.
Two further EU applications were filed by the same applicant for EDUCTOR on July 10, 2012, in classes 9, 44 and on October 14, 213 in classes 10, 35 and 44.
The first was registered as 011043296 and the second as 12250593.
QX Word Kft. filed respective invalidation actions against these three trademark applications before the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) based on alleged earlier unregistered trademarks which were allegedly also well-known trademarks.
The cancellation division rejected all the three applications stating that the earlier non-registered use was not substantiated. The appeals against such decisions to the Boards of Appeal were all rejected on the same basis. In further appeals to the General Court of the EU, the decisions of the Boards of Appeal were partially set out of effect, and the cases all were returned to the Boards of Appeal, as in the earlier decisions the alleged well-known nature of the earlier non-registered trademarks were not examined. In three recent decisions of the Fourth Boards of Appeal of the EUIPO all the three appeals were again rejected proving that the cancelation applicant failed to prove and substantiate the well-known nature of the alleged earlier non-registered trademarks. By such decisions the long history of these three trademarks has been terminated, as no further evidence can be filed and any attack against these decisions looks hopeless.
Apart from the interesting legal argumentations used in these decisions the three old trademarks of Mandelay Kft. were left valid and enforceable, and these will serve as solid basis for cancelling any later SCIO or EDUCTOR trademarks and will allow for Mandelay Kft. to qualify and stop all illegal uses of SCIO and EDUCTOR.
