Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1962-1963 — Page 33

MAMINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY

Mr. W. HUME, Acting Assistant Registrar General, that ‘SOVEREIGN was not a word not having direct reference to the character or quality of the goods, and was therefore not registrable. The fifth hearing con- cerned an application for registration of 'VICA' in class 5 in respect of therapeutic multi-vitamin mineral tablets, opposed by the proprietors of the registered trade mark 'Vicks'. It was held by Mr. HUME that the onus lay upon the applicants to convince the hearing officer that their mark was not likely to deceive or cause confusion, and that although it was a borderline case they had failed to discharge the onus. Registra- tion was therefore refused. The sixth hearing was on an objection by the Registrar to an application to register ‘KAY' in class 28 in respect of dolls and dolls' dresses. Mr. HUME held that as the word was the phonetic equivalent of the letter 'K' it could not be registered in Part A of the Register without evidence of distinctiveness. Registration was, however, allowed in Part B of the Register. In the seventh case, relating to an application to register ‘KOOLA KREEMA' in class 30 in respect of water ices, Mr. HUME held that the words 'KOOLA KREEMA' were not invented words, that the mark was deceptive in relation to water ices inasmuch as it would suggest to the ordinary purchaser that the goods he was purchasing had a cream content, and that the mark was therefore not registrable. He added that if he had not held that the mark was deceptive, he would have held that it had a direct reference to the character or quality of the goods and would therefore also not have been registrable on that ground.

Statistics

83. Part I of Table XVI gives statistics of applications, registrations, renewals, removals and cancellations, for the ten years 1953-54 to 1962-63 and Part II gives 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 were very large increases in the numbers of renewals and removals, the former having risen from 881 to 1,875 and the latter from 316 to 879. These increases were 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 In the first place, registrations under the 1909 Ordinance (Cap. 43) (now superseded by the 1954 Ordinance) were valid for 14 years, and as post-war registrations only began to be made in significant numbers in August 1947, post-war renewals were until 1961-62 confined almost entirely to pre-war registrations. During 1962-63, however, the Registry had to deal with, by renewal or removal, all the 1948-49 registrations. In the second place, registrations under the 1954 Ordinance,

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