PART I.

Preliminary and General.

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the Trade Marks Act, 1963.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may by order appoint.

2. —(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the Act of 1927” means the Industrial and Commercial Property (Protection) Act, 1927 ;

“assignment” means assignment by act of the parties concerned;

“the Controller” means the Controller of Industrial and Commercial Property appointed under the Act of 1927;

“the Court” means the High Court;

“the Journal” means the Official Journal of Industrial and Commercial Property;

“limitations” means any limitations of the exclusive right to the use of a trade mark given by the registration of a person as proprietor thereof, including limitations of that right as to mode of use, as to use in relation to goods to be sold (or otherwise traded in) in any place within the State, or as to use in relation to goods to be exported to any market outside the State;

“mark” includes a device, brand, heading, label, ticket, name, signature, word, letter, numeral, or any combination thereof;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

“the Office” means the Industrial and Commercial Property Registration Office established under the Act of 1927;

“partnership” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1 of the Partnership Act, 1890;

“permitted use” has the meaning assigned to it by paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 36 of this Act;

“prescribed” means, in relation to proceedings before the Court, prescribed by rules of court, and, in other cases, prescribed by this Act or the rules;

“the register” means the register of trade marks kept under this Act;

“registered trade mark” means a trade mark that is actually on the register;

“registered user” means a person who is for the time being registered as such under section 36 of this Act;

“the rules” means rules made by the Minister under section 3 or section 44 of this Act;

“trade mark” means, except in relation to a certification trade mark, a mark used or proposed to be used in relation to goods for the purpose of indicating, or so as to indicate, a connection in the course of trade between the goods and some person having the right either as proprietor or as registered user to use the mark, whether with or without any indication of the identity of that person, and means, in relation to a certification trade mark, a mark registered or deemed to have been registered under section 45 of this Act;

“transmission” means transmission by operation of law, devolution on the personal representative of a deceased person, and any other mode of transfer not being assignment.

(2) (a) In this Act references to the use of a mark shall be construed as references to the use of a printed or other visual representation of the mark, and references to the use of a mark in relation to goods shall be construed as references to the use thereof upon, or in physical or other relation to, goods.

(b) In any other Act references to a trade mark shall be construed as references to a trade mark under this Act.

3. —(1) The Minister may from time to time make such rules, prescribe such forms and generally do such things as he thinks expedient—

(a) for regulating the practice under this Act, including the service of documents;

(b) for classifying goods for the purposes of registration of trade marks;

(c) for making or requiring duplicates of trade marks and other documents;

(d) for securing and regulating the publishing and selling or distributing, in such manner as the Minister thinks fit, of copies of trade marks and other documents;

(e) generally, for regulating the business of the Office in relation to trade marks and all things by this Act placed under the direction or control of the Controller or of the Minister;

(f) for prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(2) Rules made under this Act shall, while in force, be of the same effect as if they were contained in this Act.

(3) Every rule made under this Act shall be advertised twice in the Journal, and shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution annulling the rule is passed by either House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the rule is laid before it, the rule shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

4. —(1) There shall be paid in respect of applications, registrations, notices, notifications, statements, counter-statements, amendments, renewals, cancellations, declarations, certificates, certified copies, entries and other matters in relation to trade marks under this Act such fees as may from time to time be prescribed by the Minister with the sanction of the Minister for Finance.

(2) All fees prescribed under this section shall be collected and accounted for in such manner as the Minister with the sanction of the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(3) The Public Offices Fees Act, 1879, shall not apply in respect of any fees payable under this Act.

5. —All things required or authorised under this Act to be done by, to or before the Minister may be done by, to or before the secretary of the Department of Industry and Commerce or any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister.

6. —Whenever the last day fixed by this Act for doing anything under this Act falls on a day which is specified by the rules as an excluded day, the rules may provide that the thing may be done on the next subsequent day which is not specified by the rules as an excluded day.

7. —The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

8. —(1) The following sections of the Act of 1927, namely, sections 3 and 9 (in so far as they refer to trade marks), 80 to 123, and (in so far as they refer to trade marks) 124, 125, 127 to 138, and 140 to 153, are hereby repealed.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall affect any order, rule, regulation or requirement made, table of fees or certificate issued, notice, decision, determination, direction or approval given, application made, thing done or trade mark or mark registered under the Act of 1927; and every such order, rule, regulation, requirement, table of fees, certificate, notice, decision, determination, direction, approval, application, thing, trade mark or mark, shall, if in force at the commencement of this Act, continue in force and shall, so far as it could have been made, issued, given, done or registered under this Act, have effect as if made, issued, given or done under the corresponding section of this Act.

(3) Any document referring to any enactment repealed by this Act shall be construed as referring to the corresponding section of this Act.