Pop Mechanix loses appeal

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 18

Pop Mechanix loses appeal

NZPA Sydney A New Zealand rock band has lost an appeal against a court order restraining it from using the name Pop Mechanix.

But in a judgment handed down a full bench of the Federal Court restricted the order to Sydney and Canberra.

The full Bench said it had not been shown that the reputation of an Australian rock band known as Popular Mechanics, which had obtained the Court order, extended beyond those two cities.

In the Federal Court on July 7, Mr Justice Ellicott granted an injunction under the Trade Practices Act res-

training the New Zealand group and C.B.S. Records (Australia), Ltd, from using the name Pop Mechanix or anything similar which was misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive. The full Bench, comprising the Chief Judge, Sir Nigel Bowen, and Mr Justice Northrop and Mr Justice Morling, said it was not only likely but almost inevitable that a significant number of people interested in the type of “new music” played by the two bands would be misled or deceived.

The Court rejected a submission that any confusion in the minds of the public which might have existed early this year had now disappeared-.