{"id":8063,"date":"2020-01-30T14:42:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T14:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:51:16","slug":"skykick-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/de\/knowledge-hub\/articles\/skykick-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"SkyKick ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p__large\">Specification of trade marks must be consistent with the essential function of indicating origin of the goods and services or risk being partially invalid for bad faith.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/curia.europa.eu\/juris\/document\/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=222824&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=en&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=3379758\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Case C-371\/18 &#8211; Sky plc &amp; ors v SkyKick UK Ltd &amp; anor, 29 January 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Two days before the UK\u2019s departure from the EU, the CJEU handed down its eagerly anticipated Judgment in SkyKick finding that a trade mark application made without any intention to use the trade mark in relation to the goods and services in the specification does constitute bad faith.\u00a0 This was the case if the applicant had the intention either of undermining, in a manner inconsistent with honest practices, the interests of third parties, or of obtaining, without even targeting a specific third party, an exclusive right for purposes other than those falling within the functions of a trade mark.\u00a0 However, this aspect of bad faith does not invalidate the entire trade mark (i.e., the \u201cpoisoned well\u201d) but only the goods and services shown to have been applied for in bad faith.\u00a0 The CJEU also indicated that it was permissible for national law to contain procedural requirements for an applicant to make a statement that he or she has bona fide intention to use a trade mark.\u00a0 Such statements might be utilised as evidence in claims of bad faith but did not constitute a separate ground of invalidity.<\/p>\n<p>The CJEU also held that a lack of clarity and precision of terms used to designate the goods or services (e.g., \u201ccomputer software\u201d) was not grounds for invalidity.\u00a0 Furthermore, a trade mark cannot be declared wholly or partially invalid on the ground that terms used to designate the goods and services in respect of which that trade mark was registered lack clarity and precision.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The case was referred by the UK High Court in an action where Sky plc (the broadcaster) claimed that SkyKick (at the time, a start-up company that supplied cloud migration information technology services) had infringed four EU trade marks and one UK trade mark consisting of the word SKY through use of the sign \u2018SkyKick\u2019 and variants thereof.\u00a0 SkyKick denied infringement and counterclaimed for a declaration that the trade marks were invalidly registered, in whole or in part, on the grounds that: (i) the specifications of goods and services\u00a0lacked clarity and precision\u00a0and (ii) the applications\u00a0were made in bad faith.\u00a0 The claim in bad faith was based on the allegation that while Sky plc did intend to use for some of the goods and services in the specification, that had not intended to use the trade marks in relation to all of the goods and services specified. \u00a0 SkyKick\u2019s primary case was that the trade marks were invalid in their entirety (the \u201cpoisoned well\u201d argument). \u00a0In the alternative, that the trade marks were partially invalid where Sky plc had not had any intention to use the trade marks.<\/p>\n<p>Arnold J (as he was then) noted that SkyKick did not appear to have a defence to Sky plc\u2019s claims for trade mark infringement despite the fact that the marks had not been used, and were not likely to be used, for many of the goods and services in respect of which they were registered.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Conclusions<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>This Judgment has far-reaching implications for, in particular, companies with trade mark portfolios containing multiple, broad trade mark filings in the EU.\u00a0 The practice of filing extensively across multiple classes of goods and services and then \u201cevergreening\u201d such filings to avoid scrutiny for non-use are now likely to be critically examined by intellectual property offices and national courts.\u00a0 Very few companies are likely to have a commercial justification for applying for trade marks with broad specifications across multiple classes.\u00a0 Many will have already considered their portfolios following the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/updates\/news\/2019\/10\/clearing-out-the-clutter-%E2%80%93-skykick-may-open-up-trade-mark-registers-across-europe\/\">AG\u2019s opinion<\/a>\u00a0in October 2019 and will breathe a sigh of relief that the CJEU has confirmed that this type of bad faith will only partially invalidate the trade mark.\u00a0 However, trade mark owners would be wise to consider the impact of the Judgment on their existing portfolios and filing practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p__medium\">This update was prepared by HGF Partner\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/about-us\/our-people\/rachel-fetches\/\">Rachel Fetches<\/a>.\u00a0 If you would like further advice on this or any other matter, please contact\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/about-us\/our-people\/rachel-fetches\/\">Rachel<\/a>.\u00a0 Alternatively, you can contact your usual HGF representative or visit our\u00a0<a href=\"\/contact\/\">Contact page<\/a>\u00a0to get in touch with your nearest HGF office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Specification of trade marks must be consistent with the essential function of indicating origin of the goods and services or risk being partially invalid for bad faith. Case C-371\/18 &#8211; &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498,497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-knowledge-hub","service-ip-litigation","service-trade-marks","sector_groups-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SkyKick ruling (Jan 20) - HGF<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/de\/knowledge-hub\/articles\/skykick-ruling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SkyKick ruling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Specification of trade marks must be consistent with the essential function of indicating origin of the goods and services or risk being partially invalid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/de\/knowledge-hub\/articles\/skykick-ruling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HGF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-30T14:42:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T13:51:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hgf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/hgf-logo-1200x675-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Akvil\u0117 Lukauskaite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@behrooz@tall.agency\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hgf_ip\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Akvil\u0117 Lukauskaite\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Akvil\u0117 Lukauskaite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e6343663c5ee3e1ccea20cd220f97f30\"},\"headline\":\"SkyKick ruling\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-30T14:42:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-19T13:51:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":730,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\",\"Knowledge Hub\"],\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hgf.com\\\/de\\\/knowledge-hub\\\/articles\\\/skykick-ruling\\\/\",\"name\":\"SkyKick ruling (Jan 20) - 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