Section 4(4) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (the Act) states that:

(4) Provision may be made by rule s prohibiting in such cases as may be prescribed the

registration of a trade mark which consists of or contains –

(a) arms to which a person is entitled by virtue of a grant of arms by the Crown, or

(b) insignia so nearly resembling such arms as to be likely to be mistaken for them,

unless it appears to the registrar that consent has been given by or on behalf of that person.

In a sense this provides for an extra form of prior right not specified in s5.

Rule 9 of the Trade Mark Rules 2000 furthermore states:

Where a representation of any arms or insignia as is referred to in section 4(4) appears in a mark, the registrar shall refuse to accept an application for the registration of the mark unless satisfied that the consent of the person entitled to the arms has been obtained.

Such an objection is therefore only overcome with consent, typically in the more common examples of prior rights, referred to as a letter of consent, from the owner of the prior right (in this case the bearer of the arms).

Trademarkroom

Tim can be contacted via email on tim@trademarkroom.com.