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Expenses Awarded When Design Cancellation Proceedings Abandoned

By Jonathan Agmon and Dan Berg

The Israeli Patent, Trademarks & Designs Registrar held on 9 December 2010 in a Motion for Award of Expenses in Design No. 46444 Cancellation Proceedings between Amraz Ltd. v. K.A. Plastic that expenses would be awarded against the party abandoning a proceeding it initiated.

In this case, an application to register a design was filed by Amraz. The design application was accepted for registration and published. Six month later K.A. Plastic filed cancelation proceedings, and in response Amraz abandoned the design registration and requested the file be closed without expenses. K.A. Plastic motioned for an award of expenses.

The Israeli Registrar stated that a party abandoning a proceeding will be seen as if he has lost the proceedings. The Registrar continued and said that when ruling on the issue of expenses the reason why a party abandoned the proceeding should not be taken into account. Expenses are also not awarded for negotiations between the parties before the proceeding was initiated. Expenses are awarded to secure the commitment in undertaking a proceeding, while taking into account that the expenses awarded are reasonable.

In this case, the Registrar awarded NIS,1800 (less than US$500) to the party initiating the cancellation proceedings.

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