... there's another piece of subordinate trade mark legislation in the United Kingdom, the sexily-titled Trade Marks (International Registrations Designating the European Community, etc) Regulations 2004 No. 2332. This statutory instrument, as its name suggests, amends UK law to accommodate applications to register a Community trade mark via the Madrid Protocol. Madrid-based CTM applications may be made from 1 October 2004, the date on which most of the provisions of the new statutory instrument come into force.
One other things the SI does is to give the Patents County Court and other Chancery County Courts jurisdiction to deal with Community trade mark cases (the Department for Constitutional Affairs is planning to amend the law further, to let County Courts deal with other trade mark matters too).
There's a useful Explanatory Memorandum for those who want to know more.
The IPKat's glad that County Courts are at last being given jurisdiction to hear trade mark issues. There's nothing so magical about small trade mark disputes that requires them only to be heard before a specialist judge in a more expensive forum. Also, the IPKat suspects that more County Court litigation won't mean less High Court litigation: it will mean generally more dispute-oriented work across the board.
Current Patents County Court diary here; PCC rules here; what the PCC actually does here
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