Guizhou Guijiu Co., Ltd. v NAGAYAMAHONKE SYUZOJO Co., Ltd

Guizhou Guijiu Co., Ltd. (the applicant) sought to cease the protection of certain trade marks registered by NAGAYAMAHONKE SYUZOJO Co., Ltd (the opponent) under regulation 17A.48C of the *Trade Marks Regulations 1995* (Cth). The dispute concerned the extent to which the opponent had used its registered trade marks during the relevant period.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the Registrar of Trade Marks had erred in exercising their discretion to allow the protection of the opponent's trade marks to continue for all the goods for which they were registered, despite evidence of use only for a subset of those goods. The court was required to determine if the opponent had demonstrated sufficient use of its trade marks to justify the continued protection across the entire scope of its registration.

The court found that the opponent's evidence clearly established use of the trade marks during the relevant period, but this use was confined to a specific subset of the goods listed in the registration. Consequently, the court determined that the Registrar's exercise of discretion to maintain protection for all goods was not appropriate. The legal principle applied was that for protection to continue under regulation 17A.48C, the evidence of use must correspond to the goods for which protection is sought.

Accordingly, the court ordered that the protection of the opponent's trade marks should cease for those goods in respect of which no use had been demonstrated.