Lambretta TM laspes for non- use

By judgment of 03/29/2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the trademark Lambretta, at the center of a bitter legal dispute, has lapsed for non-use.

It argues in this way: “….The court, therefore, places the cessation of ”effective" brand in 1985, when it ceased imports from India. It follows that the decline, according to the Court of merit, was produced in 1988, in the vigor of the earlier rules to reform that will put into effect with the Legislative Decree. N. 480/1992. According to art. 42, 1st co. I. brands, in the original version, the trademark lapses patent, in fact, if it is not used within three years from the grant of the patent, or if, after these three years, the use has been suspended for three years. The case - as argued on the basis of the District Court's findings - would therefore be insensitive to the rules introduced by the 1992 novel, since under Article. 91 Leg. Cit., The new rules governing the revocation for non-use "applicable to trade marks already granted to the date of entry into force of this decree, provided that not yet lapsed at that date."

It is therefore required that the mark has lost distinctiveness, but it is enough that has not been used for three years. Sporadic exports, if they are not deliberately intended to keep alive the brand, are worthless.