A Practical Guide to the Transfer of Trusteeships * By Richard Williams, Arabella Saker and Toby Graham

Earlier this month saw the publication of the widely anticipatedand much welcomed ‘Practical Guide to the Transfer ofTrusteeships’, produced under the stewardship of STEPand edited by the triumvirate of Richard Williams, Toby Grahamand Arabella Saker. The book has a spectacularly wide remit in addressing not onlymatters of English Law, but also the jurisdictions of the Bahamas,Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man,Singapore and Jersey. In     

From watchdog to sneak: the UK's new trade mark notification regime

Legal context: This article discusses the move from ex officio refusal of trademark applications based on relative grounds, to a notificationregime. The order making power for this derives from Section8 of the Trade Marks Act 1994. Owners of qualifying earlier registered rights, in respect ofwhich registration of the subject application would be consideredto lead to a likelihood of confusion, will be notified of thelater subject application, and must decide for themselves whetherto oppose. Key points: The article examines the justification for such a shift, interms of the need for a proper evidence and submission basedevaluation of the respective marks, as well as the need to takeall market factors into account in any evaluation. It also addressesthe legal and cultural shift entailed in such a change. Finally,the article attempts to set out three objective measures bywhich an evaluation of success could be measured. Practical significance: The change will affect all those who already have, or will have,registered trade mark rights in the UK. The author's concernin particular is for those who will be receiving notificationletters and what their response might be - given that many willbe unrepresented. The author also believes that more notificationswill be sent out than marks that are currently ‘cited’.