Trade mark decision

BL Number

O/349/02

Decision date

21 August 2002

Hearing officer

Mr O Morris

Mark

PEGASUS SECURITY GROUP

Classes

42

Applicants

Pegasus Security Holdings Limited

Opponents

Johnson Controls Inc

Hearing of a request by the applicants for an extension of time in Opposition Proceedings.

Result

Extension of time granted.

Points Of Interest

• 1. Elaboration of case for extensions, prior to hearing.
• 2. A request for an extension of time not copied to the other side is not automatically refused but it will not be considered by the Registrar until it has been so copied.

Summary

A request by the applicants for a second extension of time in which to file evidence was the subject of a preliminary view of the Registry that it should not be granted. At the resultant hearing the opponents also contended i) that only the reasons given initially in support of the request should be considered, subsequent elaborations should be disregarded, and ii) the request should be refused because correspondence had not been copied to them.

The Hearing Officer agreed that reasons given in support of any request for an exercise of a discretionary power should be as complete as possible. However, in this case there would be no prejudice to the opponents and the further reason given was persuasive. On the subject of copy correspondence the Hearing Officer agreed that the applicants could be criticised for failing to copy correspondence to the opponents but the original request had been copied and the subsequent letter was supplied within a short time. The Hearing Officer also gave to his view that the Registrar would not automatically refuse a request for an extension of time that had not been copied to the other side, rather she would not consider it until it had been so copied.

As to the requested extension itself, the Hearing Officer having considered all the circumstances, especially the accidental destruction of archived material granted it.