BMW v Deenik appears on BAILII after 16 years

Bayerische Motorenwerke AG v Deenik [1999] EUECJ C-63/97 (23 February 1999) EU:C:1999:82, [1999] ECR I-905, [1999] EUECJ C-63/97, ECLI:EU:C:1999:82, [1999] ETMR 339, which is perhaps more celebrated as a trade marks case than specifically a motor industry one, has just appeared on the free online resource BAILII, here. It is, however, concerned with the use of a car manufacturer's trade mark to announce that a garage is specialised in servicing the manufacturer's products. The Court's interpretation was that such use of the trade mark was OK provided it did not suggest that there is a commercial connection between manufacturer and garage, in particular that the garage is part of the manufacturer's network or that there is some special relationship between them. That, of course, was then, and this is now, and whether the sales-servicing schism imposed by the block exemption in the interim, and the emergence of authorised repairers who may be selected qualitatively but not quantitatively, makes any difference is an interesting question - though I suspect the answer is that it makes no difference.