National Australia Bank Limited

This decision concerns an application by National Australia Bank Limited to register a trade mark. The delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks was tasked with determining whether the proposed trade mark should be registered.

The primary legal issue before the delegate was whether the trade mark applied for so nearly resembled any cited trade marks as to be likely to deceive or cause confusion, pursuant to section 33 of the relevant legislation. The delegate also considered the presumption of registrability afforded to applicants.

The delegate found that the comparison between the trade mark and the cited marks was analogous to that in *Woolworths Metro*, and that there was nothing to distinguish the present case. The delegate concluded that the trade mark did not nearly resemble the cited marks sufficiently to cause deception or confusion. The delegate also referred to the principle that the acceptance stage for trade mark registration is not intended for detailed adversarial examination, and that the Registrar's approach should reflect this.

Ultimately, the delegate was not satisfied that there was a ground to reject the application and therefore accepted the application for registration of the trade mark.