Legislation on trade marks is one of the subjects which the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900 (sec. 9, pt. v., 51, xviii.) places within the exclusive competence of the Federal parliament. By the Commonwealth Trade Marks Act, 1905, sec. 20, provision is made for registration of trade marks throughout the Commonwealth, and subject to this act and other Commonwealth legislation the common law of England as to trade marks is applied throughout the Commonwealth. See also the Commonwealth Acts, 19 of 1912 and 7 of 1919, and 25 of 1922, extending the English acts, 1905-19 to territories under the author ity of the Commonwealth.
In Canada the law as to trade marks (Rev. Stats. c. 63) has been regulated by Dominion acts, similar to English statute law.
The following colonial laws also are based on imperial legislation : British Guiana, 27 of 1914; Ceylon, 15 of 1925; Cyprus, 17 of 1920; Union of South Africa, 9 of 1916, chap. iii.; Nigeria, 17 of 1910; Mauritius, 8 of 1913 ; Sierra Leone, 17 of 1913 ; Trinidad and Tobago, 15 of 1913.
Trade marks are excluded from the legislative power of the Government of Northern Ireland (Government of Ireland Act, 1920, sec. 4 [I] [13] ), not from that of the Irish Free State (Irish Free State, Constitution Act, 1922, sched. 16 [8]), which has established its own law of trade marks by the Industrial Property Protection Act, 1927 (No. 16 of 1927).
resides or is located in any foreign country which by treaty, con vention or law affords similar privileges to citizens of the United States (sec. The right of persons domiciled in the United States was in 1906 extended to owners of trade marks who have a factory in the United States, so far as concerns the registration, etc., of trade marks used in the products of the factory (1906, sec. 3).
Registration and the protection that registration assures do not include trade marks which: (a) comprise scandalous or im moral matter; (b) consist of or comprise the flag or insignia of the United States, or of any State or municipality, or of any foreign nation; (c) are identical with another known or registered trade mark owned and used by another and appropriated to merchandise of the same description, or so nearly resemble such other marks as to be likely to cause confusion or mistake in the mind of the public or to deceive purchasers; (d) consist merely in the name of an individual, firm, corporation or association, unless it is written, printed, impressed or woven in a particular or distinctive manner, or is associated with a portrait of the individual; (e) consist merely in words or devices descriptive of the goods with which they are used, or of the character or quality of such goods, or merely of a geographical name or term ; (f) contain the portrait of a living individual unless his consent is evidenced by an instru ment in writing.
Decisions of the examiners on applications or oppositions are subject to appeal to the commissioner of patents, and from him to the court of appeals for the District of Columbia (secs. 8, 9). The general jurisdiction in trade mark cases is given to the Federal courts below the Supreme Court, which has power by certiorari to review the decisions of circuit courts of appeal upon such cases (secs. 17, 18). The maximum protection given by registration is 20 years. The protection given to marks already registered in a foreign country lapses when the mark ceases to be protected in the foreign country (sec. 12). Certificates of regis tration are issued under the seal of the Patent Office.