"LADDERPROOF."

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 9 June 1926, Page 8

"LADDERPROOF."

TRADE MARK FOR STOCKINGS.

NO DISTINCTIVE MEANING.

REGISTRATION VOIDED,

(By Telegraph.—Presi Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

The use of the word "Ladderproof" as a stocking trade mark was disallowed by a reserved judgment of the Chief Justice (the Hon. C. P. Skerrett) to-day, on an appeal by a number of soft goods importers throughout New Zealand from a decision of the Registrar of Trade Marks allowing such registration in the name of George A. Bond and Company.

The grounds of the objection were that "Ladderproof" was not capable of distinguishing the goods of applicants, that the proposed mark had not been used upon or in connection with goods in such a manner as to indicate that they were the goods of applicants, and that the word was in common use by manufacturers to indicate a peculiar quality of the manufactured article and in no case was it distinctive of the goods of any particular manufacturer. His Honor found that the word "Ladderproof" was not, in fact, used by the applicants for the purpose of indicating their goods as distinguished from other manufacturers, that the primary meaning of the word was descriptive and not distinctive, and that the word had not in the New Zealand hosiery trade acquired a distinctive meaning denoting the applicants' goods.

The appeal was allowed, and allowance of registration was voided.