<p>Article 9(1) of Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks must be interpreted as meaning that the proprietor of an earlier mark who has indicated in an extrajudicial letter of formal notice, addressed to the proprietor of a later trade mark and seeking the cessation of its use, a time limit for bringing an invalidity action in respect of that mark, which coincides with the expiry of the period of limitation of five successive years laid down in Article 9(1) of that directive, may apply, after the date indicated, for a declaration of invalidity on the basis of bad faith on the part of the proprietor of the later mark when filing the application for registration of that mark, even if, at the time of that letter of formal notice, that proprietor of the earlier mark had all the information necessary to consider that the registration had been applied for in bad faith.</p>