Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1969-1970 — Page 41

of distinctiveness by user in Hong Kong. Mr. MCLEAN allowed the application to proceed, subject to a disclaimer of the letter 'M'. The seventh hearing concerned an application to register OVER and UNDER in Class 2 in respect of varnishes, lacquers and sealing prep- arations, which had been refused registration on the ground that the mark was descriptive of the goods. The hearing was taken by Mr. P. JACOBS, who decided to allow the application to proceed on amendment of the specification of goods to sealer for resilient and/or porous floors, terrazzo, concrete and similar surfaces, and subject to a disclaimer of the words 'OVER' and 'UNDER' when used separately. In the eighth case, which related to an application to register FRIS-KEE in Class 25 in respect of ladies' foundation garments and other articles of clothing, Mr. JACOBS held that the mark was descriptive of the goods. He added, however, that the mark could be allowed either in Part B of the Register on evidence of two years' bona fide user in Hong Kong or in Part A on evidence of distinctiveness.

106. In addition to the foregoing hearings, three interlocutory hearings took place, two in respect of amendment of notice of opposition and one in respect of an extension of time in opposition proceedings.

Statistics

107. Part I of Table XXI gives statistics of applications, registrations, renewals, cancellations, removals and restorations, for the ten years. 1960-61 to 1969-70, 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 of this Table that there have been reductions in the numbers of renewals and removals, the former having dropped from 1,722 to 1,116 and the latter from 879 to 478. The decrease in the number of renewals was due to there being no first renewals of registrations under the 1909 Trade Marks Ordinance (valid for 14 years) and renewals being confined almost entirely to first renewals of trade marks registered in 1962-63 under the 1954 Ordinance (valid for 7 years).

Fees

108. Mainly as a result of the reduction in the number of renewals effected during the year, the fees collected dropped by $12,622 below the 1968-69 figures to $504,859. Particulars of fees collected are given in Table XXII.

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