Section 31 Trade Marks Act 1967

Section 31 of the Trade Marks Act 1967 is about Removal from register on ground of non-use. It is under ‘Use and non-use’ of the Act. It provides as follows:

(1) Subject to this and the next following section, a registered trade mark may be
taken off the register in respect of any of the goods in respect of which it is registered on an application made by any person concerned to the court or, at the option of the applicant and subject to section 56 of this Act, to the Registrar, on either of the grounds set out in subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The said grounds are-
(a) that the trade mark was registered without any bona fide intention on the part
of the applicant for registration that it should be used in relation to those goods
by him, and that there has in fact been no bona fide use of the trade mark in
relation to those goods by any proprietor thereof for the time being up to the
date one month before the date of the application; or

(b) that up to the date one month before the date of the application a continuous
period of five years or longer elapsed during which the trade mark was a registered trade mark and during which there was no bona fide use thereof in relation to those goods by any proprietor thereof for the time being.

(3) The tribunal may refuse an application made under this section on either of the said grounds if it is shown that before the relevant date or during the relevant period, as the case may be, there has been bona fide use of the trade mark, by any proprietor for the time being thereof, in relation to goods of the same description as the goods to which the application relates, being goods in respect of which the trade mark is registered:

Provided that where on any such application it is shown as aforesaid, the tribunal
shall not refuse the application-
(a) if the applicant has been permitted under section 13 (2) of this Act to register
an identical or nearly resembling trade mark in respect of the goods in question; or
(b) if the tribunal is of opinion that the applicant might properly be permitted to
register such a trade mark.

(4) An applicant shall not be entitled to rely for the purposes of subsection (2) (b) of this section, on any non-use of a trade mark that is shown to have been due to special circumstances in the trade and not to any intention not to use or to abandon the trade mark in relation to the goods to which the application relates.

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