Order of 26 Aug 2020, C-322/20 (Wonder Line v EUIPO), ECLI:EU:C:2020:706.

ORDER OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COURT

26 August 2020 (*)

(Appeal – EU trade mark – Article 170a(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice – No request that the appeal be allowed to proceed – Appeal inadmissible)

In Case C-322/20 P,

APPEAL under Article 56 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, brought on 14 July 2020,

Wonder Line, SL, established in Barcelona (Spain), represented by E. Manresa Medina, abogado

appellant,

the other party to the proceedings being:

European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO),

defendant at first instance,

THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COURT

makes the following

Order

1        By its appeal, Wonder Line, SL, seeks to have set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 13 May 2020, Wonder Line v EUIPO – De Longhi Benelux (KENWELL) (T-284/19, not published, EU:T:2020:192) (‘the judgment under appeal’), by which that court dismissed its action for annulment of the decision of the Second Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) of 11 February 2019 (Case R 1351/2018-2), relating to opposition proceedings between, on one hand, De Longhi Benelux and, on the other hand, the appellant.

2        The appeal falls within the scope of Article 58a of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘the Statute’).

3        Under Article 170a(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, in the situations referred to in Article 58a of the Statute, the appeal must be accompanied by a request that the appeal be allowed to proceed, in which the appellant sets out the issue raised by the appeal that is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of EU law and which contains all the information necessary to enable the Court of Justice to rule on that request. If there is no such request, the Vice-President of the Court is to declare the appeal inadmissible.

4        In the present case, the judgment under appeal was notified to the appellant on 14 May 2020 and the appeal against that judgment was received at the General Court Registry on 14 July 2020.

5        By email of 20 July 2020, the General Court Registry transmitted the appeal to the Registry of the Court of Justice, in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 54 of the Statute.

6        On 22 July 2020, the appellant was requested by the Registry of the Court of Justice to put its appeal in order by filing, first, before the expiry of the time limit for lodging the appeal, that being 24 July 2020, the request prescribed by Article 170a(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court and, secondly, before 29 July 2020, the summary of the pleas in law and legal arguments relied upon required by Article 168(1)(d) of those Rules, and the information relating to the date of service of the judgment under appeal on the appellant.

7        However, although that summary and that information were duly received by the Court, no request that the appeal be allowed to proceed was filed by the appellant.

8        Consequently, the appeal must be dismissed as inadmissible pursuant to the last sentence of Article 170a(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court.

 Costs

9        Under Article 137 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, which applies to appeal proceedings by virtue of Article 184(1) thereof, a decision as to costs is to be given in the order which closes the proceedings.

10      Since the present order was adopted before the appeal was served on the other party to the proceedings and, therefore, before it could have incurred costs, it is appropriate to decide that the appellant is to bear its own costs.

On those grounds, the Vice-President of the Court hereby orders:

1.      The appeal is dismissed as inadmissible.

2.      Wonder Line, SL, shall bear its own costs.

Luxembourg, 26 August 2020.

A. Calot Escobar

R. Silva de Lapuerta

Registrar

Vice-President of the Court

* Language of the case: English.