Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1961-1962 — Page 26

trade mark the registration of which was applied for, the words 'Royal Command' were not registrable.

58. Two prosecutions relating to trade marks are worthy of mention In the first case an applicant was found guilty of making a false declara- tion with respect to the trade mark 'Misslyn' and fined $800. The second case arose out of advertisements of Rothmans' 'King Size' Cigarettes which appeared in three Hong Kong newspapers over the name of a local firm of solicitors. Proceedings were taken against the partners of the firm on the ground that the manner in which the advertisements were worded misrepresented registration rights in the Trade Marks, and contravened the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (d) of Section 87(1) of the Trade Marks Ordinance. After a trial lasting two days the defendants were found not guilty of the charges.

Statistics

59. Part I of Table XVII gives statistics of applications, registra- tions, renewals, removals and cancellations, for the ten years 1952-53 to 1961-62; Part II statistics of miscellaneous other work done during the year with the corresponding figures for the previous year. It will be seen from Part I that there have been tremendous jumps in the numbers of renewals, up from 118 in 1960-61 to 881, and of removals, up from 47 in 1960-61 to 316. This is due to two factors. In the first place, registrations under the 1909 Ordinance (Cap. 43) (now superseded by the 1954 Ordinance) were valid for 14 years, and as post-war registra- tions only began to be made in significant numbers in August 1947, post-war renewals have hitherto been, confined almost entirely to pre- war registrations. During 1961-62, however, the Registry has had to deal with, by renewal or removal, all the 1947-48 registrations. In the second place, registrations under the 1954 Ordinance, which came into force on 1st January 1955, are valid for only seven years, so that the Registry had also to deal with, by renewal or removal, the registrations dated between 1st January and 31st March 1955. This abnormal situation of having to deal with two series of first renewals will continue until the end of 1968. As will be seen from Part II, apart from the registration of marks as associated trade marks, the miscellaneous work of the Registry was nearly double that done in 1960-61.

Fees

60. In view of the greatly increased number of renewals and dou- bling of the miscellaneous work, the total of fees collected rose sharply by $63,881 over the 1960-61 figure to the new record total of $194,909.

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