A TRADE MARK.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 September 1924, Page 7

A TRADE MARK.

ORDER BY SUPREME COURT. (by TELEGRAPH —-PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Sept. _ 26. '■ The Supreme Court to-day heard .application for declarations that plaintiii .was. entitled to be represented in New Zealand as the proprietor of the trade mark. “Lysol.” The parties were Lysol, Ltd., having, its registered office in London, and Pearson’s Antiseptic Co., Ltd. Pearson’s was not represented. Plaintiff claimed to have obtained all the rights for New Zealand in respect to the trade mark “Lysol,” and that certain orders made under the Patents Design and Trade Marks Amendment Act, 1894, and subsequent orders had Lapsed. Counsel said that when the war broke out in 1914 the trade mark belonged to a. German firm, and defendants made application for avoidance or suspension of the trade mark in New Zealand. Registration was suspended in favour of Pearson’s, and special marking had to be used, termed “British Lysol.” In 1920, when the time came for renewal, Pearson’s did not renew, hut the agents in New Zealand for a German firm renewed. The Act and regulations had gone out of existence. The plaintiff company was, as far as counsel knew, purely British, although the original applicant had been a German company. Plaintiff had secured the assignment of the rights of all parties who had the right to registration prior to 1914. The Chief Justice decided that the suspension became inoperative six months after the war. Plaintiff had to give, to the satisfaction of the registrar, evidence of the assignment of the rights to plaintiff, and was then entitled to be registered as proprietor of the trade mark. There was nothing to prevent registration being effected if the registrar saw no reason to the contrary. An order would be made that plaintiff was entitled to he registered as proprietor.