Registration of a trade-mark is effected at the Patent Office upon the application by or on behalf of the person who claims to be its proprietor. The application must be made on a prescribed form which is supplied at the office, and should be accompanied by the prescribed number of representa tions of the trade-mark, and state the particular goods or classes of goods in connection with which the applicant desires the trade-mark to be registered. The comptroller may refuse to register, but the applicant can appeal from such a refusal to the Board of Trade. An applicant, other than,, one under an international convention, must give the comptroller an address for service in the United Kingdom. Registration should be completed within twelve months from the date of the application, otherwise, after the applicant has failed to comply with certain notices to complete, the application will be considered to be abandoned. Directly after its receipt at the Patent Office the application is advertised, and then, within one month or such further time not exceeding three months as the comptroller may allow, any person who has a right to feel himself aggrieved by the proposed registration may enter an opposition. Failing opposition, or in the event of it falling through, or its being abandoned, the comptroller will register the trade mark. It may happen that several persons each claim to be registered as proprietor of the same trade-mark. In such a case the comptroller may refuse to register any of them until their rights have been determined accord ing to law, and he may himself submit or require the claimants to submit their rights to the Court.
The register is kept at the Patent Office in London, but a copy of the part relating to cotton goods is kept at Manchester, and there is a branch register at Sheffield for local cutlery marks.
Restrictions on registration.—By sections 19 to 21 of the Act it is pro vided that, except by Order of the Court or in the case of trade-marks in use before the 13th August 1875, the comptroller must not register in respect of the same goods or description of goods a trade-mark identical with one belonging to a different proprietor already on the register with respect to such goods or description of goods. And, except as already stated, the comptroller must not register with respect to the same goods or description of goods a trade-mark having such resemblance to a trade-mark already on the register with respect to such goods or descriptions of goods as to be calculated to deceive. Honest concurrent user may, however, warrant regis tration of identical or similar trade-marks. Again, it is not lawful to register as part of or in combination with a trade-mark any words the use of which would, by reason of their being calculated to deceive or other wise, be deemed disentitled to protection in a court of justice, or any scandalous design. But by section 34 the comptroller has a discretion to register an addition to or alteration of a trade-mark which does not in any manner substantially affect its identity. In such a case, where the application to register is not refused, the registration may be permitted subject to terms.
a trade-mark contains parts not separately registered, or matter common to the trade or otherwise of a non-distinctive character the trade-mark is not primd facie entitled to be registered or to remain on the register. Accordingly, as a condition to its being upon the register a disclaimer may be required. This means that the proprietor must formally disclaim any right to the exclusive use of some part of the trade-mark, or of some portion of its matter, to the exclusive use of which he is not entitled.
Special trade marks.—Standardisation, (ST.—An association or person undertaking the examination of goods in respect of origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality, accuracy, or other characteristic, and certifies the result of his examination by a mark used upon or in connection with the goods, may now obtain registration of that mark as a trade-mark. But registration is ilot permitted unless it is to the public advantage. And the trade-mark is transmissible or assignable only by permission of the Board of Trade.
Effect of registration.—Equivalent to public usc.—The application for registration is equivalent to a public use of the trade-mark ; and the date of the application, for statutory purposes, is deemed to be the date of the registration. The registration is for a period of fourteen years, which may be renewed. Right of proprietor to exclusive usc.—By section 39 of the Act it is enacted that " the registration of a person as proprietor of a trade-mark shall, if valid, give to each person the exclusive right to the use of such trade-mark upon or in connexion with the goods in respect of which it is registered." After the expiration of seven years from the date of the original registration (or seven years from the passing of the Act, whichever shall last happen), the original registration is to be taken as valid, unless it was obtained by fraud or the mark offends against public law. Such of those provisions as relate to the removal of the trade-mark from the register will now be noticed. At the prescribed time before the expiration of fourteen years from the date of the registration of a trade-mark and in the prescribed manner, the comptroller shall send notice to the registered proprietor that the trade-mark will be removed from the register unless the proprietor pays to the comptroller before the expiration of such fourteen years (naming the date at which the same will expire) the prescribed fee; and if such fee be not previously- paid he shall, at the expiration of one month from the date of the giving of the first notice, send a second notice to the same effect. If such fee be not paid before the expiration of such fourteen years the comptroller may, after the end of the prescribed time from the expiration of such fourteen years, remove the mark from the register, and so from time to time at the expiration of every period of fourteen years. If before the expiration of the prescribed time the regis tered proprietor pays the said fee, together with the additional prescribed fee, the comptroller may, without removing such trade-mark from the register, accept the said fee as if it had been paid before the expiration of the said fourteen years. Where a trade-mark has been removed from the register for non-payment of the prescribed fee, the comptroller may, if satisfied that it is just so to do, restore such trade-mark to the register on payment of the prescribed additional fee. Status of un-renewed trade-mark. —Where a trade-mark has been removed from the register for non-payment of the fee for renewal, such trade-mark shall, nevertheless, for the purpose of any application for registration during one year next after the date of such removal be deemed to be a trade-mark which is already registered, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the comptroller that there has been no bond fide trade user of such trade-mark during the two years imniediately preceding such removal.