Right and Wrong Analogies: The CJEU's use of Trade Mark Concepts in Copyright and Design Law

摘要

In the last few years, the Court of Justice of the European Union has started to use notions of one intellectual property right (IPR), namely trade mark law, to decide cases dealing with other IPRs, namely designs and copyright. This article analyses this case law. It shows that in some cases, this practice is justified but in others, is controversial, even misplaced, and concludes that the Advocates General and the Court should be wary of extending notions or reasonings from one IPR to another without having carefully verified whether these can apply to another IPR.