Bridging Law and Practice: How Case Law Guides IP Decision Making – EUIPO
14-May-2026
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Source : The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
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Visits : 513
ALICANTE - Case law plays a key role in the IP system, translating legal principles into practical guidance. This helps examiners, legal practitioners and businesses make informed decisions, promoting predictability and efficiency for IP users, according to the official website of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
On 21-22 May 2026, the Boards of Appeal of the EUIPO will host the 6th IP Case Law Conference (IPCLC), in Alicante and online. The IPCLC will bring together diverse participants – including judges, academics, legal practitioners and institutional representatives – to discuss the evolution of IP jurisprudence in Europe.
The conference theme is “Growing through change” and it will focus on the latest case law on trademarks, designs, copyright and domain names, with updates on key rulings, emerging trends and the future of IP adjudication.
Case law at the EUIPO
There is now a considerable volume of case law on EU trademarks (EUTMs) and registered EU designs (REUDs). The first EUTMs were registered 30 years ago, in 1996, and the first judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in an EUTM case was in September 2001 – nearly 25 years ago.
At first instance, the Office applies the EUIPO Guidelines, which set out the Office’s interpretation of the applicable legal framework and case law.
The EUIPO Boards of Appeal operate independently and are not bound by the EUIPO Guidelines. Their decisions are based directly on the EU regulations and the case law of the CJEU and General Court. In this way, the Boards play a central role in ensuring the correct and consistent interpretation of EU law within the Office.
A key element of this system is the Grand Board of Appeal, which deals with cases raising issues of particular legal importance, complexity or need for consistency. Its decisions provide authoritative guidance within the EUIPO and are binding on the first instance and for the individual boards of appeal, thereby ensuring coherence in the Office’s decision-making practice.
Grand Board decisions and pending cases can be found in the Boards of Appeal section on the EUIPO website.
The CJEU is the final judicial authority for decisions on EUTMs and REUDs. It also rules on questions referred from national courts in the EU on the interpretation of EU-derived laws relating to trademarks, designs, geographical indications, copyright, comparative advertising and other IP legislation.
Case-law tools
The European IP landscape can appear complicated given that there are now three decades of rulings from the CJEU and General Court, EUIPO Boards of Appeal and national courts. However, there are a number of tools that help to navigate it.
One is eSearch Case Law. This online database offers both basic and advanced searches of EUIPO decisions as well as judgments of the CJ, General Court and national courts. A basic search uses the case number and/or name while an advanced search can look for specific words and also supports conditional search operators (i.e. and, or, not) and wild-card characters to perform special functions.
The EUIPO is working closely with the National IP Offices and the national courts to further expand and enrich the number of decisions and judgments available, with the aim of progressively ensuring full coverage across trademarks, designs, geographical indications, and copyright. These are translated into English to facilitate wider understanding, accessibility and visibility.
Results in eSearch Case Law are displayed in four tabs; trademark decisions, design decisions, national court judgments and preliminary rulings. In advanced search, you can search for documents within any one of the four tabs.
Another useful tool is Recent case-law, which provides summaries of EU and national judgments in IP cases, as well as notable decisions of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal, Grand Board of Appeal and Cancellation Division. New summaries are added regularly. There are also annual overviews of CJ, General Court and Board of Appeal case law.
Finally, the Boards of Appeal case-law research reports are guides to specific topics, which are based on discussions within the Consistency Circles and the General Consistency Meeting of the Boards of Appeal. So far, there have been nine reports on absolute grounds, 15 on relative grounds, eight on designs, one on procedure and registry, and one on collective rights.
The Boards of Appeal case-law research reports are working documents and are non-binding, but they provide a useful overview of how particular issues have been addressed in previous cases.
Taking stock of case law: themes of the upcoming IPCLC
The 6th edition of the IPCLC will provide an opportunity to review and draw lessons from the latest case law on a range of topics in Europe and beyond. It will include the following sessions:
• Emerging Frontiers of EU Trademark Adjudication: Insights from the General Court and Boards of Appeal
• Appearances matter: Leveraging the power of Designs
• Use It or Lose It: Mastering Proof of Use in EU Trademarks
• Iconic marks across borders: How reputed and famous marks are treated in China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United States of America?
• Navigating the admission threshold for further appeals to the Court of Justice
• Fireside chat: Case law in the age of AI - Adapting to the unpredictable
• Parallel Lives: The necessary dialogue between trademark registration and infringement proceedings
• Names and other IP rights that matter: Leveraging titles, personality rights, company names and geographical indications in relative ground disputes and enforcement. The first session, “Emerging Frontiers of EU Trademark Adjudication: Insights from the General Court and Boards of Appeal” brings together judges from the General Court and members of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal. The panel will explore how established principles are being tested in a rapidly changing global environment. It will address practical and evolving questions such as the assessment of trademarks in non-Latin scripts, the meaning of genuine use in increasingly complex markets, and how the limits of protection for weak and reputed marks continue to develop through recent case law and practice.
Held over two days in Alicante, the IPCLC enables connections both onsite and online. While onsite participation reached full capacity shortly after registration opened, online participation remains available, ensuring broad accessibility to this flagship event.
For more information, visit the link: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/news/bridging-law-and-practice-how-case-law-guides-ip-decision-making