International jurisdiction in EU trademark infringements on the internet – is it possible to complicate things even further?

Abstract

The volume of judgments of the CJEU in the field of EU trademarks has increased dramatically in the latest years. While the drafting of the grounds of jurisdiction in the EU Trademark Regulation is quite similar to those of the Brussels I Regulation, their interpretation varies substantially. This divergent interpretation affects legal certainty of companies identifying their products and services in the Internal market using parallel national trademarks and EU trademarks and increases the complexity of litigation in those cases where both categories of industrial property rights are at stake. To reduce these problems, the present work proposes the adoption of a uniform interpretation of the grounds of jurisdiction of the EU trademark Regulation and the Brussels I Regulation.