Applications as accepted are advertised; the advertisements state the conditions, if any, imposed on acceptance (sec. 13). Notice of opposition to the registration of a trade mark may be given under sec. 14 of the act of 1905 (which replaces sec. 69 of the act of 1883). The registrar after consideration decides whether the opposition is well or ill founded. His decision is subject to appeal to the High Court or by consent of the parties to the Board of Trade (1905, sec. 14 [5]).
There may be added to any one or more of the "essential par ticulars" above enumerated any letters, words or figures, or a combination of these. But the right to the exclusive use of the added matter must be disclaimed. A man is not required, however, to disclaim his own name, or trade name, or that of his place of business, if the name appears in the mark.
The register may be corrected on the request of the registered owner of a trade mark as to errors or changes of address in the name of the registered owner, or by cancelling entries of marks or by striking out classes of goods for which a mark is registered or by entering disclaimers or memoranda as to a mark, provided that they do not extend the rights given by the existing registration (sec. 33).
A registered trade mark may be altered or added to in matters not substantially affecting its identity (sec. 34). A registered trade mark may be taken off by order of the court on the appli cation of a person aggrieved, on the ground that it was registered without a bona fide intention to use it in connection with a par ticular class of goods, and that there has not been any such bona fide user, or that there has been no such bona fide user during the five years preceding the application. Non-use may be excused if proved to be owing to special circumstances and not to any in tention not to use or to abandon the use of the mark (sec. 37). (See Re Hare's Trade Mark, 1907, 24 R.P.C. 263.) The register may be rectified by order of the court on the application of any person aggrieved, or in the case of fraud in registration or transmission of the mark on the application of the registrar (s. 35).
Effect of Registration.—Registration is effective for 14 years but is renewable (sec. 28). The registration if valid gives the proprietor the exclusive right to the use of the mark on or in connection with the goods in respect of which it is registered (1905, sec. 39). This rule is subject to the following qualifications.
(a) Where two or more persons are registered owners of the same or substantially the same mark in respect of the same goods, no one of them shall as against any other of them have any right of exclusive user except so far as their respective rights have been defined by the court. (b) Registration of a trade mark does not entitle the proprietor to interfere with or restrain the use by any person of a similar mark upon or in connection with goods upon or in connection with which such person has by himself or his predecessors in business continuously used such trade mark from a date anterior to the use of the mark by the registered proprietor, or to object to the registration of the other man's similar mark for concurrent user.
In all legal proceedings relating to a registered trade mark registration is prima facie evidence of validity, and after seven years from the original registration, or seven years from the passing of the act of 1905, whichever shall last happen, the original registration shall be taken to be valid in all respects unless it was obtained by fraud, or the mark is disentitled to protection as being calculated to deceive or (act of 1919, sec. 6 [1 1] ) is the only practicable name of an article or substance manufactured under an expired patent. No word which is the only practicable name of any single chemical element or compound is registrable as a trade mark. This provision does not apply to a mark denoting only the proprietor's brand or make of such substance (act of 1919, sec. 6 [2]).
Registered trade marks are assignable and transmissible only with the goodwill of the business concerned in the goods for which they are registered, and are determinable with the goodwill (sec. 22). Associated marks are assignable and transmissible only as a whole and not separately (sec. 27). The owner of a registered mark may assign the right to use his registered mark in any British possession or protectorate or foreign country in connec tion with any goods for which it is registered, together with the goodwill of the business therein of such goods (sec. 22).