TRADE MARKS FORGED

Southland Times, Issue 22215, 6 January 1934, Page 16

TRADE MARKS FORGED

CYCLE MANUFACTURERS CONCERNED.

NEW ZEALAND CUSTOMS PRECAUTIONS.

Forgery of trade marks in the cycle and motor cycle industries has been causing some concern to English manufacturers, according to the London correspondent of the Christchurch Press. British trade marks had been found overseas on machines that had not been made in Britain, and which were greatly inferior in workmanship to the British product.

The New Zealand Customs Department, whose duty it is to exclude manufactured goods not falling within the requirements of the Designs, Patents, and Trades Marks Act, 1908, has not been troubled with any spurious imports of this, nature in Christchurch and, as far as it is known, there has been no attempt to outwit the authorities or defraud the public through any New Zealand port. Although this country has not been troubled by false trade marks on cycles and machinery, such as those shipped recently to India, other types of goods have been held up and investigated, mostly imports from Japan and. occasionally, from the Continent. The Japanese, according to a local Customs official, are the worst offenders in this lespect. Goods have been found stamped with an English mark of origin and an English brand, but, in their manufactured state, the goods have never been out of the Pacific area. Actual forgeries of registered trade marks are comparatively rare; forger—ies of marks of origin are much more common. In the former case the Customs Department generally relies on notification from the manufacturer whose interests are affected and, after the complaint has been confirmed as genuine, investigations are set in train and the necessary proceedings taken. According to the provisions of the Act of 1908 the following types of goods are excluded from the country:—Goods to which any forged trade mark or false trade description is applied or to which any trade mark dr mark so nearly resembling a trade mark as to be calculated to deceive is falsely applied.