?esk? Bud?jovice, 3rd February 2011 – Today, the Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Community Verica Trstenjak has made public the standpoint in the case C-482/09 (preliminary ruling from the Court of Appeal, UK – interpretation of “acquiesced” in the community law and applicability of EU law during the national proceedings in Great Britain). To a certain extent, the case is precedent. Its significance is also confirmed by the fact that the Advocate General took into consideration also statements concerning the case sent to her by the governments of the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and Portugal as well as the European Commission.
Today’s standpoint is very favorable for Budweiser Budvar increasing the brewery’s chances in further continuation of the dispute, since the Advocate General has supported Budweiser Budvar’s legal opinion that the legal dispute concerning the Budweiser trademark within the territory of the UK should carry on without applying the EU directives (specifically Article 4(1)(a) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC), which Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (ABI) legal action was based on. “If the Court of Justice of the European Community bases its preliminary ruling on the standpoint of the Advocate General Verica Trstenjak, the legal action of our competitor may lose its main legal argument that it has been built on,” says Budweiser Budvar’s PR manager Petr Samec. The standpoint furthermore contains an opinion that the case such as that must be decided in accordance with the national law of Great Britain and additionally, it explains the controversial concept of “acquiescence” in a way that enables Budweiser Budvar to effectively defend its trademark rights from ABI’s claims in the United Kingdom.
The dispute in Britain began in 2005, when ABI applied to the Patent Office for a declaration of invalidity of the ‘Budweiser’ trademark registered for Budweiser Budvar. The ‘Budweiser’ trademark is registered in Britain for both companies and they have been using it for selling beer. Nonetheless British customers are able to clearly distinguish between both competition products.