Abstract(s)
Os primórdios normativos da marca comunitária encontram-se no disposto no art. 2.º do Tratado
de Roma em cuja versão original se lia que a Comunidade tinha como objectivos a promoção do
desenvolvimento harmonioso das actividades económicas, da expansão contínua e equilibrada e do
crescimento sustentável do nível de vida com base no estabelecimento de um mercado único. Tal
implicava a abolição dos obstáculos à livre circulação de mercadorias e à livre prestação de serviços e a
instituição de um sistema que assegurasse o não falseamento da concorrência.
Na avaliação das causas potencialmente distorcivas do mercado, as Instituições comunitárias
aperceberam-se de que as disparidades das legislações dos Estados-membros em matéria de marcas
afectavam as liberdades supra referidas e a concorrência.
Com efeito, os Estados-Membros, mantendo os seus direitos nacionais em matéria de marcas,
criavam entraves ao funcionamento harmonioso e não enganoso do mercado único. Neste contexto, o
instrumento jurídico-económico, mais eficaz para fazer face a esta “entropia” do mercado da União
Europeia, era a criação de uma marca com vocação comunitária.
Assegurada, numa primeira fase, a harmonização das legislações dos Estados-Membros em
matéria de marcas, o passo seguinte foi a aprovação do Regulamento que criou a marca comunitária, em
efectividade desde Abril de 1996, com efeitos jurídicos unitários em todo o território da Comunidade.
Contudo, e não obstante a forte contribuição da marca comunitária para assegurar o edifício
económico do mercado único, o regime jurídico que a suporta suscita um conjunto de questões que
podem traduzir efeitos antagónicos aos que justificaram a sua criação. São algumas dessas questões que
constituem o PROBLEMA que o presente trabalho pretende abordar.
The Community Trademark’s normative beginnings are in the article 2 of the Treaty of Rome which first version stated that the Community had as its tasks, the promotion throughout the Community of an harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living by establishing a common market. This involved, the abolition between Member States of all obstacles to freedom of movement for goods and services and the institution of a system ensuring that competition in the common market was not distorted. While evaluating the causes potentially distorting the market, the Community Institutions have realized that the disparities of the Member States laws concerning trademarks affected the above mentioned freedoms as well as the competition. Indeed, the Member States, maintaining their national laws concerning trademarks, created barriers to the harmonious functioning of the single market. In this context, the economic and judicial instrument created to deal more effectively with this entropy, was the Community trademark. After the initial step of harmonizing the laws of Member states relating to trade marks, the next stage was the adoption of a Regulation that created the Community trademark, fully in force since April 1996, with legal effect throughout the Community. However, despite the strong contribution of the Community trade mark to ensure the economic edifice of the single market, the legal regime that supports it raises a number of issues that can lead to the same antagonistic effects that justified its creation. These issues are the SUBJET MATTERS this paper seeks to address.
The Community Trademark’s normative beginnings are in the article 2 of the Treaty of Rome which first version stated that the Community had as its tasks, the promotion throughout the Community of an harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living by establishing a common market. This involved, the abolition between Member States of all obstacles to freedom of movement for goods and services and the institution of a system ensuring that competition in the common market was not distorted. While evaluating the causes potentially distorting the market, the Community Institutions have realized that the disparities of the Member States laws concerning trademarks affected the above mentioned freedoms as well as the competition. Indeed, the Member States, maintaining their national laws concerning trademarks, created barriers to the harmonious functioning of the single market. In this context, the economic and judicial instrument created to deal more effectively with this entropy, was the Community trademark. After the initial step of harmonizing the laws of Member states relating to trade marks, the next stage was the adoption of a Regulation that created the Community trademark, fully in force since April 1996, with legal effect throughout the Community. However, despite the strong contribution of the Community trade mark to ensure the economic edifice of the single market, the legal regime that supports it raises a number of issues that can lead to the same antagonistic effects that justified its creation. These issues are the SUBJET MATTERS this paper seeks to address.
Description
Keywords
União Europeia Marca comunitária Livre circulação de mercadorias e serviços European Union Community trade mark Freedom of movement for goods and services