Correction, Alteration and Adaptation of the Register

In one line

Three ways the register is kept tidy at the proprietor's own request or the Registrar's initiative, none of which is an attack on the mark.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 58 allows the Registrar, on the registered proprietor's application, to correct an error in his name, address or description or in any other entry, to enter a change in his name, address or description, to cancel the entry of a mark, or to strike out goods or classes from those for which it is registered, and to make consequential amendments to the certificate; section 59 allows the proprietor to apply for leave to add to or alter the mark in any manner not substantially affecting its identity; and section 60 governs the adaptation of entries to an amended or substituted classification.

Section 58: correction of the register

Sub-section (1), on the application of the registered proprietor. The Registrar may:

• (a) correct any error in the name, address or description of the registered proprietor, or any other entry relating to the mark;
• (b) enter any change in the name, address or description of the person registered as proprietor;
• (c) cancel the entry of a trade mark on the register;
• (d) strike out any goods or classes of goods or services from those in respect of which the mark is registered;

and he may make any consequential amendment or alteration in the certificate of registration, and for that purpose may require the certificate to be produced to him.

Note who moves. Only the registered proprietor. Section 58 is not available to a rival, and a rival's route is section 57.

Note also clauses (c) and (d). A proprietor may surrender his registration, or cut it down. That is often done to settle an opposition or a rectification, or to remove goods he does not use before an application under section 47 is made.

Sub-section (2), registered users. On the application of a registered user, and after notice to the registered proprietor, the Registrar may correct any error or enter any change in the name, address or description of the registered user.

Section 59: alteration of a registered mark

Sub-section (1). The registered proprietor may apply in the prescribed manner for leave to add to or alter the trade mark in any manner NOT SUBSTANTIALLY AFFECTING THE IDENTITY THEREOF, and the Registrar may refuse leave or may grant it on such terms and subject to such limitations as he may think fit.

The controlling words are "not substantially affecting the identity". A proprietor may modernise a script, tidy a device, or drop a descriptive word. He may not turn one mark into another, because that would give the new mark the old mark's date, and the point is the same as the one chapter 310 makes about amending an application.