CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 286

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Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

Memorandum by the Registrar of Trade-Marks,

THIS letter raises some practical points special to the textile trade, and as it is to` be sent on to Sir E. Satow, for his information and guidance, it may be of assistance to him if I elaborate a little the explanation about what are known in Manchester as "B List marks,"

I would first point out that, under the Act of Parliament, all marks cannot be registered. Things may be very good trade-marks even though they do not come The result is that they do not obtain within the definition of the Act of Parliament. the special protection afforded by registration under the Act, but, for all that, the Courts, upon suitable evidence, do protect them from infringement.

A very large class of marks was excluded from protection by registration, in consequence of a rule that where more than three persons had used the mark it was not A sufficiently distinctive to warrant its registration. For instance, a man in Penzance, with a local trade in soda-water, might have been using an eagle as his trade-mark.

A man in Canterbury might have man in Manchester might have been doing the same.

Á man in been doing the same. A man in Durham might have been doing the same.

In consequence of the local nature of their Aberdeen might have been doing the same. trade, their goods never came in competition, but in the circumstances none of them could get registration, though he could get a certificate that registration had been refused. This situation was somewhat inaccurately summed up in this short phrase: The device of an eagle is common to the trade in soda-water." This does not mean that any person might go to Penzance and set up in business as a soda-water manu- facturer, and use an eagle as his trade-mark. The Chancery Division would promptly have restrained him from so doing, because, by using the eagle as his trade-mark, he would be misleading customers of the old firm.

With this preamble I go on to the special case of Manchester. Here tens of All Manchester firms were thousands of marks have been used in various markets.

invited to send in to the Manchester office representations of all marks that they had used, not being word marks, which were early settled to be open marks in the cotton classes. The expression "open marks" was used as synonymous with the words I have used above,

"common to the trade," and the proposition about words would be equally As I well stated by saying "word marks are common to the trade in cotton classes." have said, all firms were invited to send in their marks, and this invitation, almost without exception, they accepted. A Committee of Experts was then appointed, and went through these marks and divided them into two classes. The first class, or Class A, consisted of marks which, in the opinion of that Committee, could be registered under the Act of Parliament, and the second class, or Class B, consisted of such marks as were not, in the opinion of the Committee, trade-marks within the meaning of the Act.

After the Committee had sat and settled these two lisis, it was permitted to any person whose mark was put in the first class to apply to be registered, and if there was As a matter of fact, nearly every one of these no objection the mark was registered. first class marks is on the register.

But the position of the owners of the marks in the second class or B List was different, for, though these marks are bound into volumes and kept for reference, it was not permitted to register any of these marks without the direction of the Court. An order of the Court has been obtained in respect of a few of these marks, but they are a very few, and the majority of B List marks are on record in the bound volumes only.

It is in these circumstances that the Chamber of Commerce consider that some means should be taken to protect the owners of these B List marks. Though they cannot probably make a case for registration, yet they can make a very strong case for the refusal of registration of any such marks to any other persou. Such a registra- tion, if effected, would effectually prevent the use of marks which were in use before the B List was settled, and probably have been in large use since.

RALPH GRIFFIN.

(Signed)

November 24, 1904.

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