101. 879 marks were removed from the Register for non-payment of the registration renewal fee, 7 cancelled at the request of the registered proprietors, and 37 removed marks were restored to the Register. The total number of marks on the Register on 31st March 1969 was therefore 22,909 comprising 2,421 re-registered pre-war marks and 20,488 new marks.
Oppositions and Hearings
102. Forty-four oppositions were pending at the beginning of the year, and twenty-nine further notices of opposition were received during the year. Sixteen oppositions were withdrawn, twenty-two opposed applications were withdrawn, four were abandoned, and one went to a hearing before the Registrar leaving thirty pending at the end of the year. Oppositions rarely go to a hearing before the Registrar; usually, one side or the other withdraws, or the parties arrive at some com- promise arrangement acceptable to the Registrar. The opposition hearing concerned an application for registration of ZENITH in Class 9 in respect of binoculars, opposed by the proprietors of the registered trade mark ZENITH (Nos. 867 and 868 of 1950). At the conclusion of the hearing the parties indicated to the Hearing Officer (Mr. MCLEAN) that they would settle their differences between themselves, and accordingly no decision was given in the case at that time.
103. There were also five hearings during the year on objections by the Registrar to applications for registration of Trade Marks. The first hearing related to an application to register MIRACLE in Class 29 in respect of margarine, shortenings, edible oils and fats and all other goods included in Class 29. Mr. J. L. G. MCLEAN, acting for the Registrar of Trade Marks, took the hearing and held that the mark had a direct reference to the character or quality of the goods and was, therefore, not registrable under paragraph (d) of sub-section (1) of Section 9 of the Ordinance. The second, third and fourth hearings were on objections by the Registrar to applications to register FORD in Class 7 (in respect of washing machines, clothes dryers, combination washers and dryers (home and commercial), dry-cleaning equipment, garbage disposal units, and agricultural implements of the larger kind); in Class 9 (in respect of radio apparatus, television apparatus, phono- graphs and tape recorders); and in Class 11 (in respect of freezers and refrigerators, electric ventilators, electric stoves and ranges). It was held by Mr. MCLEAN that FORD was, according to its ordinary significa- tion, a surname and could not be registered in any of three classes
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