Rectification, Cancellation and Correction of the Register

In one line

Four separate powers keep the register true: cancellation or variation for breach of a condition, rectification of a wrong entry, correction of a detail, alteration of the indication itself, and reclassification of goods.

The four provisions distinguished at the outset

Section 27: cancellation, variation and rectification

Section 27(1), breach of a condition. On application in the prescribed manner to the High Court or to the Registrar by any person aggrieved, the Registrar or the High Court, as the case may be, may make such order as it thinks fit "for cancelling or varying the registration of a geographical indication or authorised user on the ground of any contravention, or failure to observe the condition entered on the register in relation thereto".

So section 27(1) is about breach. A registration accepted subject to conditions under section 11(6), or an authorised user's registration subject to limitations, may be cancelled or varied if the conditions are broken. This is the Act's quality-control mechanism: a producer who stops making the goods to the registered specification can lose his entry.

Section 27(2), rectification. Any person aggrieved by

• the absence or omission from the register of any entry;
• any entry made without sufficient cause;
• any entry wrongly remaining on the register; or
• any error or defect in any entry,

may apply to the High Court or the Registrar, who may make such order for making, expunging or varying the entry as it thinks fit.

Section 27(3). The Registrar or the High Court may in any proceeding under the section decide any question necessary or expedient to decide in connection with the rectification.

Section 27(4), the own-motion power. The Registrar or the High Court may, of its own motion, after giving notice in the prescribed manner to the parties concerned and after giving them an opportunity of being heard, make any order under section 27(1) or (2).

Section 27(4) has no counterpart in the Designs Act. Section 31 of that Act works only on an application by a person aggrieved. Here the authority may act on its own, subject to notice and a hearing, which reflects the public interest in a collective right.