Wine Law

27 right to the name, specifically the title of nobility “Marqués de Ballestar”, which she had held since 16 December 1971, against the sign for alcoholic beverages (except beers) and wines in class 33 and services in classes 35 and 39. Since in the Spanish body of laws, titles of nobility enjoy the protection of the right to honour, personal and family privacy and own image, the sign has been declared invalid 56 . III. A Legitimate Sign Finally, since trademark rights are an exception to the freedom of trade and competition, the granting of trademark rights must therefore not be such as to confer a monopoly on an applicant in bad faith. The EUTMR has established good faith an autonomous criterion, which must govern the application of trademark law. Thus, in order to be validly and permanently protected, good faith must prevail both at the stage of its filing and its opposition to third parties. III.1. At the Stage of its Application To be valid, a trademark must be filed in good faith. This general principle has been declined by special provisions. 1) Article 59.1(b) EUTMR has established that bad faith is an absolute ground for refusal or nullity. Therefore, bad faith is assessed at the time of the application. The grounds of bad faith apply to prevent trademark registration that is abusive and contrary to honest commercial and business practice when the trademark was filed solely with the intent to harm and/or to unduly appropriate the benefit of a legitimate undertaking or to thwart it by claiming against it the ownership of the fraudulently registered trademark. Bad faith requires an overall assessment of the circumstances of the case likely to indicate its existence. Such circumstances could include, inter alia , the fact that the applicant knows or must know that a third party is using an identical or similar sign for identical or similar goods or services capable of being confused with the sign for which registration is sought; the applicant’s intention to prevent that third party from continuing to use such a sign; and 56 EUIPO, 3 December 2009, Marqués de Ballestar, R 1288/2008-1.