Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/383/02

Decision date

23 September 2002

Hearing Officer

Mr M Foley

Mark

TCI

Classes

19

Registered Proprietor

Cairnford Ceramics Limited

Applicants for Declaration for Invalidity

Thai Wall Tile Limited Partnership

Application for Invalidation

Section 47 (Sections 3(6); 5(4)(a) & 5(4)(b))

Result

Section 47(1) (Section 3(6)) - Application for invalidation successful.

Points Of Interest

• 1. Bad faith : evidence established case "to a reasonable level of certainty".

Summary

The applicants for invalidation claimed that they owned and used the mark prior to the date of application for registration, and the registered proprietor was aware of this.

The Hearing Officer, having commented that the evidence was "Thin to say the least", nevertheless found that it established ‘to a reasonable level of certainty’ that the registered proprietor was aware that the TCI logo was the applicants’ mark and that they had a trade in the UK.

The Section 3(6) case succeeded accordingly and the Hearing Officer did not go on to give detailed considerations of the other grounds beyond remarking that the Section 5(4)(a) ground would probably succeed; the evidence for the Section 5(4)(b) objection was insufficient, however.

Full decision O/383/02 21Kb