The court answered: : The cases show clearly that differences in national intellectual property laws are hard to reconcile with the existence of a common market. Indeed, as long ago as 1959 the Commission urged the Council to set up working parties to look at patents, trademarks and designs. At that stage, however, it was the creation of Community-wide intellectual property rights that was on the

doi:10.4324/9781843142928-29

Chapter

ABSTRACT

It replied: ... the proprietor of a right to a design acquired under the legislation of a Member State may oppose the importation of products from another Member State which are identical in appearance to the design which has been filed, provided that the products in question have not been put into circulation in the other Member State by, or with the consent of, the proprietor of the right or a person legally or economically dependent on him, that as between the natural or legal persons in question there is no kind of agreement or concerted practice in restraint of competition and finally that the respective rights of the proprietors of the right to the design in the various Member States were created independently of one another.