Third party observations

This information applies only to applications made under the Trade Marks Act 1994

Once an application has been advertised in the Trade Marks Journal, anybody who thinks it has been accepted in error may write to the Registry with their comments. For example, the person making the observations (the observer) may know that the mark has some descriptive meaning in a particular trade or profession, of which the examiner may be unaware.

These observations are legally described as "third party observations", because the observer does not become a party to the proceedings just by making observations.

The observations will be copied to the applicant and told whether the Registry has considered them to be valid, i.e. that they do indeed bring new information to light, and that we intend to reopen the examination process, or that we consider the observations tell us nothing that we did not know when the application was accepted.

If the examination process is reopened, then the applicant is entitled to fully state his case for acceptance of the application as in the initial examination procedure, which includes the right to a Hearing, if desired.

We cannot formally refuse to register a published application until after the three-month opposition period has expired, or until after any opposition proceedings have been settled in the applicant's favour.

Anyone very aggrieved about the acceptance of a published application should consider formally opposing the mark themselves