Trade mark decision

BL Number: O/084/99
Decision date: 17 March 1999
Hearing Officer: Mr M Foley
Mark: MAGIC BALL
Classes: 30
Registered Proprietor: Zeta Espacial SA
Applicants for Revocation: Nestle UK Ltd; Consolidated applications (two) for revocation : Section 46(1)(b)

Result

Application for revocation partially successful

Points Of Interest

1. Proper reasons : technical difficulties in manufacture
2. Discretion

Summary

The registered proprietor agreed that there had been no use during the relevant period but claimed that there were ‘proper reasons’ for this. They further put forward the argument that the marks should not be revoked in their entirety since they owned similar registrations in other EU states and allowing the applicants to revoke the mark and obtain a registration of the mark in their own name would "fractionalise" the market and be "contrary to the spirit and intent of the common market".

The Hearing Officer accepted that the technical difficulties encountered in manufacture constituted "proper reasons", but found that these applied to only one of the goods in the specification and he therefore revoked the registration in respect of the remaining goods. As these constituted the majority he awarded costs to the applicants. He did not accept that the Registrar had a discretion to preserve the registrations intact.

Full decision O/084/99 43Kb