Data

Date:
22-08-1993
Country:
Israel
Number:
3912/90
Court:
Supreme Court of Israel
Parties:
Unknown

Keywords

APPLICATION OF CISG - CONTRACT GOVERNED BY 1964 HAGUE UNIFORM LAW OBITER REFERENCE TO CISG

GOODS NOT FREE FROM THIRD PARTIES' RIGHTS - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (ART. 42 CISG) - BUYER'S AWARENESS OF THIRD PARTIES' RIGHTS (ART. 42(2)(A) CISG)

Abstract

An Israeli seller manufactured and sold jeans boots to a Belgian buyer, who had ordered them for export in the United States. The buyer had expressly asked the seller to attach a well known jeans trademark to the boots. Importation of the boots in the United States was denied by the United States Custom Authority on the grounds of infringement of trademark protection law. The buyer was later allowed to sell the boots at a much reduced price, after removing the trademark.

Though the contract was governed by the 1964 Hague Convention relating to a Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods (ULIS), the Court referred obiter to CISG (which at the time of the conclusion of the contract had not been ratified either by Israel or by Belgium). In particular, the Court mentioned Art. 42(2)(a) according to which the seller's obligation to deliver goods free from any third party's right based on intellectual property does not extend to cases where at the time of the conclusion of the contract the buyer knew or could not be unaware of the third party's claim. In the Court's opinion, the buyer must have known about the trademark infringement under the circumstances, also because the trademark had been part of the designs supplied by the buyer itself.

The Court however granted the buyer recovery of half of its loss on the grounds that both parties had violated the good faith general provision in Israeli domestic contract law, since neither of them could claim not to have been aware of the infringement of such a well known trademark.

Fulltext

[not yet available]}}

Source

Published in Hebrew:
- 47 Piskei Din, 1993, 64-88

Summary of the case and commentary:
- A. Reich, Editorial Remarks, at Pace University CISG Database, http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/cases/930822i5.html

Source:
- Pace University CISG Database (http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/)}}