Community trade mark round-up 2012

The purpose of this article is to give a quick overview of the most significant trade mark cases decided in 2012 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the General Court (GC). The cases discussed concern the application of Council Regulation 207/2009 of 26 February 2009 on the Community trade mark (which replaced Regulation 40/94 of 20 December 1993) (CTMR), Commission Regulation 2868/95 implementing the CTMR (CTMIR), and Directive 2008/95 of 22 October 2008 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (which replaced Directive 89/104) ('the Trade Mark Directive'). The article has a practical bias and is aimed at readers who wish rapidly to find the key decisions of 2012.