My Lords, the amendment put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, is of considerable interest. The very welcome aim and objective of Clause 10 is clearly to provide the most cost-effective
and quick alternative for appealing against a registrar’s opinion and for distinguishing between matters of law and fact and so on. It is very interesting to suggest that it is the patents county court that would specifically deal with that, because that would meet the need for a point of law to be referred to the court in a cost-effective way. Rather like the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, I do not know what the practicality of that is, but I certainly hope that the Minister will explore the suggestion because it seems to be consistent with the aims of the rest of Clause 10.
It is certainly interesting that Clause 10 has been constructed, as I understand it, very much in the way that current trade marks appeals against the registrar’s decisions are made, and that seems to commend it. What I do not know is whether the trade marks legislation refers to the High Court or whether there is some other route for a legal point to be determined on appeal in trade mark cases.
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