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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> MAGIC BALL (Trade Mark: Revocation) [1999] UKIntelP o08499 (17 March 1999)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/1999/o08499.html
Cite as: [1999] UKIntelP o8499, [1999] UKIntelP o08499
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MAGIC BALL (Trade Mark: Revocation) [1999] UKIntelP o08499 (17 March 1999)
For the whole decision click here: o08499
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
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.