Intellectual Property and Trade Marks
Under the continuing integration of UK and EU law, trade mark law is being changed to require an opponent who bases his opposition to an application to register a trade mark on the basis that they hold similar ones to show proof of actual use of those marks. This is being done through the Trade Marks (Proof of Use, etc) Regulations 2004.
Coming in at the same time is a provision which will allow the Registrar to give notice of provisional refusal to the International Bureau where any term used to indicate any of the goods and services in the international application is vague, incomprehensible or linguistically incorrect. This is being done through the Trade Marks (International Registration) (Amendment) Order 2004.
