Law: Trade Marks Act, 1940

Section: 6(1)(d)

(a) Trade Marks Act (V of 1940)  S. 6(1)(d)."Character or quality of goods"-Word "up" in phrase "Bubble up"-Does not by itself convey any idea of effervescence or sparkling, hence, not descriptive. The parties to this case are engaged in bottling of soft drink known as "Bubble up" and "7-up". The Registrar, Trade Marks allowed the appli cation of Messrs 7-Up for the registration of the word "Up" as a Trade Mark. The appellant Messrs Bubble Up have been engaged in business of bottling since 1917 and have obtained registration of Trade Mark "Bubble Up" in U. S. A. and many other countries but their application for similar Trade Mark has been pending in Pakistan since July 1964. It was contended on behalf of Messrs Bubble Up that the word "Up" is a word having direct reference to the character or quality of the goods and may not therefore be registered. It was argued that the word has the meaning "effervescent" or at least that that is one of its meanings. Held, it is true, that the moment the word "Up" was thought of in combination with some other word such as "Bubble" the image of a liquid intended for drinking and contained in a transparent vessel through which the bubbles could be seen coming up to the surface was conjured up. But this was not the result of the word by itself but only in combination with some suitable word and such an association of ideas is bound up also with a large number of other propositions and it is not correct to say that, on that account, the word by itself, conveyed any such meaning as effervescent or sparkling. (b) Trade Marks Act (V of 1940) S. 6(1)(d)-Word descriptive of goods-Purpose of Legislature being to forbid use in Trade Mark of a word descriptive of goods, word must convey a description to those commonly seeing or hearing it and not only to scholarly people-Meaning of word "Up"-Only such one conclusive as would occur not only to very erudite persons but such which ordinary person in Pakistan would understand. Assuming, however, that the word "Up" is given the meaning of…