The European Court of First instance ruled on February 23, 2006 that the owner of a registered trademark cannot be exempted of submitting evidence of the use of that trademark by simply raising the use of a similar registered trademark.
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(Trademark to be evidenced as used)(Trademarks used) Since 1992, French case law also considers that the use of a registered trademark, analogous to another registered trademark “ supposedly both held by the same owner “ is not regarded as an exploitation of the sign submitted to a cancellation action for non use.
(Trademark to be evidenced as used)(Trademark used) However, the French High Court took an opposite direction on March 14, 2006, in 3 decisions, by accepting evidence of use based on another registered trademark, the sole question being, along with Article 5-C of the Paris Convention, to determine if that other sign has substantial differences compared to the mark submitted to the cancellation action.