Herbert Neumann v Sons of the Desert SL

This matter concerned an application by Herbert Neumann (the applicant) against Sons of the Desert SL (the opponent) before the Registrar of Trade Marks. The dispute centred on the ownership of certain trade marks, with the opponent asserting co-ownership on a worldwide basis. The Registrar considered various statutory declarations and correspondence filed by both parties, as well as contractual documents.

The primary legal issue before the Registrar was whether there was a contractual term, either express or implied, by which the parties agreed to jointly own the trade marks throughout the world. The opponent sought to rely on pre-contractual verbal agreements, contemporaneous understandings, or past negotiations to establish this joint ownership, despite the existence of written contracts.

The Registrar determined that the written contracts appeared to be entire and did not contain any reference to extrinsic material such as parol agreements. Applying the parol evidence rule, as articulated in *Mercantile Bank of Sydney v Taylor* (1891) 12 LR (NSW) 252 and approved in *Dent v Moore* [1919] HCA 11; (1919) 26 CLR 316, the Registrar held that evidence of prior or contemporaneous agreements that would add to or vary the written contract was inadmissible. The Registrar found no written contractual term, express or implied, supporting the claim of worldwide co-ownership. The Registrar also noted that the opponent's own Spanish trade mark attorney's declaration did not fully support the claim of worldwide co-ownership.

The Registrar concluded that the opponent's attempts to imply a pre-contractual understanding or verbal agreement into the written contracts must fail. Consequently, there was no agreement, express or implied, in evidence as to the worldwide ownership of the opposed trade mark or the MAN trade mark.