(a) Section 27(1)(a) questions
12 Mr Pham applied for registration of the IR composite mark on 7 December 2011. As such, pursuant to s 27(1) of the 1995 Act he claimed to be the owner of the mark (s 27(1)(a)) and to be a person who, relevantly, intended to authorise IR to use the mark in relation to IR's radiological services (s 27(1)(b)(ii)).
13 However, the primary judge found that Mr Pham was not the owner of the IR composite mark and never intended to authorise IR to use the mark in relation to IR's radiological services. Rather, IR was the owner of the mark at all times, at least by reason of authorship, and the fact that it was IR which was to use its own mark rather than to do so with Mr Pham's authority (see the primary judge's reasons at [60] - [66]). ICI contended that this meant that its ground of opposition to the registration under s 58 of the 1995 Act, which provides that registration may be opposed on the ground that the applicant is not the owner of the mark, must succeed. The primary judge rejected this contention, adopting the reasoning in Mobileworld Communications Pty Ltd v Q & Q Global Enterprise [2003] FCA 1404; (2003) 61 IPR 98 at [83], Crazy Ron's Communications Pty Limited v Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited [2004] FCAFC 196; (2004) 209 ALR 1 at [128], and Global Brand Marketing Inc v YD Pty Limited [2008] FCA 605; (2008) 76 IPR 161 at [131] - [134], the effect of which is that the requirement that the applicant own the mark may be satisfied at any time during the currency of the application. The primary judge concluded that as Mr Pham assigned the trade mark to IR on 1 July 2013, IR was the owner of the IR composite mark during the currency of the application, with the result that this ground of ICI's opposition must fail.
14 ICI contends that the primary judge ought to have accepted its argument that the requirement of ownership must be satisfied when the application was made and cannot be satisfied at any time thereafter. We agree.
15 First, we do not accept that Crazy Ron's at [128] was anything other than obiter dicta. The Full Court had determined that the appeal must be allowed on the basis that the purported amendment of the application to substitute the name of the owner of the mark as the applicant was not authorised by the 1995 Act (at [117] - [127]). The statement at [128] apparently endorsing the reasoning in Mobileworld at [83] was not necessary to the result and orders.
16 Second, Mobileworld at [83] and Global Brand at [131] - [134] do not refer to all relevant provisions of the 1995 Act and authorities. Mobileworld and Global Brand appear to be based both on the fact that the 1995 Act introduced a definition of "applicant" in s 6(1) which means, in relation to an application, "the person in whose name the application is for the time being proceeding" and the use of the present tense "is" in s 58 ("The registration of a trade mark may be opposed on the ground that the applicant is not the owner of the trade mark"). Taken in isolation, these matters support the conclusion that the ground in s 58 is to be determined at the time the opposition is decided. But in our opinion, when the scheme of the 1995 Act is considered as a whole and in the context of established common law principles relating to trade marks, a different conclusion is necessary. Accordingly, the obiter dicta in Crazy Ron's at [128] and the reasoning in Mobileworld at [83] and in Global Brand at [131] - [134] are incorrect.
17 Section 58, as noted, provides that:
The registration of a trade mark may be opposed on the ground that the applicant is not the owner of the trade mark.
18 By s 27(1)(a) an application may be made by a person who "claims to be the owner of the trade mark". In Food Channel Network Pty Ltd v Television Food Network GP [2010] FCAFC 58; (2010) 185 FCR 9 the Full Court, in considering the issue of contested ownership and intention to use (a requirement imposed by s 59), said:
49 At common law, rights in a trade mark are established by use. The Act allows an applicant to obtain title to a trade mark prior to use, so long as the requirements in s 27 are met. Two requirements must be satisfied by an applicant who seeks to register a trade mark:
1. s 27(1)(a) requires that an applicant 'claims to be the owner of the trade mark', and
2. s 27(1)(b) requires that an applicant is either using or intends to use (or authorises or intends to authorise another to use) the mark in relation to the goods or services concerned.
50 The judge interpreted the requirement in s 27(1)(a) as being equivalent to proven, rather than claimed, 'ownership'. Her Honour said at [78]: "The application of s 27(1)(b)(ii) is only relevant if s 27(1)(a) is satisfied, namely that the trade mark applicant is also the owner." The terms of s 27(1)(a) do not support that approach.
51 McTiernan J explained in Shell Co of Australia Ltd v Rohm and Haas Co (1948) 78 CLR 601 (at 631):
the lodging of the application for the registration of [the mark] gave [the applicant] an inchoate title to that trade mark and an inchoate right to its exclusive use; the title and the right would cease if registration were refused, but if granted the title and the right would be confirmed and endure for the term of the registration. … For a very long time it has been a fundamental principle of the legislation providing for the registration of trade marks that the lodging of an application for registration gives to the applicant certain rights in respect of the user of the trade mark of which registration is sought.
52 In the same case, Dixon J said that (at 627):
The basis of a claim to proprietorship in a trade mark so far unused has been found in the combined effect of authorship of the mark, the intention to use it upon or in connection with the goods and the applying for registration.
53 In the United Kingdom, insertion of the phrase "claiming to be the proprietor" into the equivalent section of the Patents, Designs and Trademarks Act 1883 (UK) was considered to ameliorate the confusion over whether the previous Act did no more than provide for the registration of marks, 'proprietorship' in which had already vested via the common law, through use. So much was explained by Gummow J in Carnival Cruise Lines Inc v Sitmar Cruises Ltd (1994) 31 IPR 375 (at 385-6):
The phrase 'claiming to be the proprietor' had not appeared in the comparable provisions of the first of the modern British statutes, the Trade Marks Registration Acts 1875-1877 (UK). After the passage of the 1875 legislation, there had been doubts as to whether the legislation did no more than provide for the registration of marks already distinctive by reason of use and, as such, protected at common law, or whether it enabled a person who had coined a trade mark to obtain registration and treat that registration as equivalent to prior public use; see, eg Edwards v Dennis (1885) 30 Ch D 454 at 473, 479. The doubt was resolved in favour of the wider construction of the 1875 legislation by Re Hudson's Trade-Marks (1886) 32 Ch D 311 at 319-20, 325-6. In the meantime, s 62 of the 1883 statute had come into force. The introduction of the phrase 'claiming to be the proprietor' was treated in the Sebastian's, The Law of Trade Marks, 3rd ed, 1890, p 361, as having clarified the situation. The learned author said that 'By "claiming to be the proprietor" nothing more is meant than "claiming to be the first to adopt", whether there has been any user or not'. He added that 'Since by s 77 a trade mark cannot be protected until either it has been registered or registration has been refused, it hardly seems that there can be any effective proprietorship until registration has been granted…'
…
55 Section 58 of the Act provides that registration of a trademark may be opposed on the ground that the applicant is not the owner of the mark. In this context, the term 'owner' derives meaning from its common law origins relating to prior use. As explained in Shanahan's Australian Law of Trade Marks And Passing Off (4th Ed) (at 380):
The first user is the person entitled to claim to be the owner and if the applicant is shown not to be the first user, the ground of opposition will be established.
19 In either case, be it ownership by authorship and prior use or ownership by the combination of authorship, the filing of the application and an intention to use, the scheme of the legislation under both the 1995 Act and its predecessors, the Trade Marks Act 1905 (Cth) (the 1905 Act) and the Trade Marks Act 1955 (Cth) (the 1955 Act) provide for "registration of ownership not ownership by registration" (PB Foods v Malanda Dairyfoods Ltd [1999] FCA 1602; (1999) 47 IPR 47 at [78] - [80] per Carr J cited in Accor Australia & New Zealand Hospitality Pty Ltd v Liv Pty Ltd [2017] FCAFC 56 at [170]).
20 In Shell Co of Australia Ltd v Rohm and Haas Co (1949) 78 CLR 601 at 624, a case under the 1905 Act which did not contain a definition of "applicant", Dixon J referred to the:
well-settled general principle that the title of a mark to registration is to be determined on the state of facts existing when the application is lodged.
21 In another case under the 1905 Act, Southern Cross Refrigerating Co v Toowoomba Foundry Pty Ltd (1954) 91 CLR 592 at 595, Kitto J, applying Re Jellinek's Application (1946) 63 RPC 59, said that in respect of "applications for registration, the rights of the parties are to be determined as at the date of the application".
22 The same approach has been taken in a number of cases under the 1995 Act. The Full Court in Registrar Of Trade Marks v Woolworths [1999] FCA 1020; (1999) 93 FCR 365 at [50] approved of Kitto J's statements of principle in Southern Cross Refrigerating insofar as the issue of deceptive similarity is concerned saying that the "essential elements of those propositions continue to apply to the issue of deceptive similarity under the 1995 Act". Further, in Lomas v Winton Shire Council [2002] FCAFC 413 at [36] - [44] the Full Court assumed that ownership at the application date was required. In Food Channel at [67] and [74] the Full Court, having referred to Shell and Lomas, also said that the issue of intention to use under s 59 of the 1995 Act must be determined at the date of the application.
23 It is true that the 1995 Act introduced a definition of "applicant" which is expressly ambulatory in its operation (that is, the applicant is the person in whose name the application is "for the time being proceeding"). At the same time the 1995 Act introduced a capacity for assignment of a trade mark whose registration was being sought. No such provision appeared in the 1905 Act or the 1955 Act. Section 58 of the 1905 Act and s 82 of the 1955 Act permitted only a registered trade mark to be assigned.
24 Thus, s 106(1) of the 1995 Act provides that:
A registered trade mark, or a trade mark whose registration is being sought, may be assigned or transmitted in accordance with this section.
25 It is apparent from the terms of s 106(1) that it is the trade mark, not the application for the trade mark, which is being assigned. Section 106(1) thus pre-supposes ownership of the mark in the assignor that is to be transferred to the assignee which, under established principle, is ownership either by authorship and prior use or by the combination of authorship, the filing of the application and an intention to use.
26 By s 107(1) an application for the assignment of a trade mark whose registration is being sought is required to be recorded on the Register. By s 107(2) this application is to be in accordance with the regulations. Regulation 10.1 of the Trade Marks Regulations 1995 (Cth) requires, as a prescribed document to accompany such an application, "a document that establishes the title to a trade mark of the assignee". By s 108(2):
On and after the day on which the Registrar records the particulars of the assignment or transmission, the person to whom the trade mark has been assigned or transmitted is taken, for the purposes of this Act, to be the applicant for the registration of the trade mark.
27 Equivalent provisions apply to registered trade marks in ss 109 and 110. In the case of registered trade marks and trade marks whose registration is being sought, s 111 applies and provides that:
If an application made under section 107 or 109 in relation to the assignment or transmission of a trade mark complies with this Act, the Registrar must notify in accordance with the regulations any person recorded under Part 11 as claiming an interest in, or a right in respect of, the trade mark.
28 These provisions are relevant in two ways.
29 First, and as noted, the scheme of the 1995 Act (in common with the 1905 Act and the 1955 Act) is that the person claiming to be the owner is permitted to file an application under s 27(1). Such a person may claim to be the owner as at the application date either by reason of authorship and prior use or by reason of authorship, filing the application and an intention to use. The mark the subject of an application may be assigned but, consistent with this scheme, ss 106 - 109 assume that the applicant, who is able to file an application only by reason of a claim to be the owner when the application is made, is in fact the owner of the mark and thus able to assign the mark. In that event, ss 106, 107, 108 and 111 ensure that the new owner, the assignee, becomes the applicant for registration and that the Register reflects this position.
30 Second, it is apparent that this scheme requires a definition of "applicant" which is ambulatory in its operation. The capacity to assign trade marks the subject of a pending application for registration explains the introduction of the definition of "applicant" as the person in whose name for the time being the application is proceeding. The definition is necessary to enable ss 106 - 111 to operate in respect of the assignment of trade marks the subject of a pending application.
31 In the context of this scheme, where the capacity to file an application depends on a claim of ownership (s 27(1)(a)) and use or an intention to use the mark (s 27(1)(b)), the ground of opposition in s 58 should be construed as applying at the time the application is made. If it were otherwise, the provisions regulating the capacity to file an application, s 27(1)(a) and s 27(1)(b), need not require the applicant to be a person claiming to be the owner of the mark who is using or intends to use the mark as at the application date. Similarly, as held in Food Channel with respect to s 59 (which provides that registration may be opposed on the ground that the applicant "does not" intend to use or authorise the use of the mark or to assign the mark to a body corporate for use), if the requisite intention need not exist as at the filing of the application then there would be no purpose in s 27(1)(b) imposing such a requirement.
32 Once it is understood that the legislative scheme operates in the context of established principle that the alternative sources of ownership of a trade mark are authorship and use before filing an application for registration or the combination of authorship, filing of an application for registration and an intention to use or authorise use, the relationship between s 27 and ss 58 and 59 of the 1995 Act becomes apparent. The grounds of opposition in ss 58 and 59 reflect the requirements of s 27. Only a person claiming to be an owner may apply for registration. That claim may be justified at the time the application is made based on either alternative source of ownership. But if the claim is not justified at that time, ss 58 and/or 59 are available grounds of opposition. Moreover, if the applicant is not the owner of the mark at the time of the filing of the application, the assignment provisions in ss 106 - 111 do not assist because they authorise the assignment of the mark and thus pre-suppose, consistent with established principle, that the applicant owns the mark.
33 In Shell at 624 Dixon J said that the fact that registration gives rights back to the date of application is consistent with the requirement that the applicant own the mark at the application date. We agree. Under s 72 of the 1995 Act (in common with the 1905 Act and 1955 Act) the registration of a trade mark is taken to have had effect from (and including) the filing date in respect of the application. The "filing date" is defined in s 6(1) to mean, relevantly, the day on which the application is filed or, for a divisional application, the filing date of the parent application. The rights given to a registered owner to use a registered mark by s 20 of the 1995 Act, being the exclusive right to use and authorise the use of the mark and to obtain relief for infringement, thus relate back to the filing date of the application.
34 Section 28, relating to joint owners, is also consistent with this approach. Section 28 provides that:
If the relations between 2 or more persons interested in a trade mark are such that none of them is entitled to use the trade mark except:
(a) on behalf of all of them; or
(b) in relation to goods and/or services with which all of them are connected in the course of trade;
the persons may together apply for its registration under subsection 27(1).
35 Section 28 thus also pre-supposes ownership of a mark at the time of application, albeit ownership subject to other legal relations between those interested in the mark.
36 Contrary to the submissions for IR, the definition of "registered owner" does not assist its case. "Registered owner" is defined in s 6(1) to mean the person in whose name the trade mark is registered. Before registration, there is no such person. By s 68(1), the Registrar must register the trade mark accepted for registration "within the period provided under the regulations". The period is 6 months from the day on which the acceptance is advertised in the Official Journal (regulation 7.1). By s 69(1) the trade mark must be registered in the name of the applicant for registration. Given ss 106 - 111, this must mean the applicant in whose name the application is proceeding at the expiry of the six month period.
37 IR submitted that the period for which Mr Pham was the "applicant" for the IR composite mark was irrelevant as only a registered owner has the exclusive rights under s 20 and thus may sue for infringement and related relief (such as damages or an account of profits) under ss 120 and 126 respectively. It is true that s 20 vests the exclusive rights in the registered owner, but nothing in ss 120 or 126 identifies that the only possible plaintiff on an action for infringement and consequential relief is the registered owner at the time the action for infringement is commenced or otherwise. This reflects the legislative scheme which permits assignment of a trade mark, including one subject to a pending application for registration, and gives rights on registration back to the filing date of the application.
38 In Hunter Douglas Australia Pty Ltd v Perma Blinds (1970) 122 CLR 49 at 59 and 60, in respect of the provisions of the 1955 Act, Barwick CJ said:
Indeed, it would appear that once registered, the proprietor's exclusive rights granted by s 58 are exercisable in respect of acts done by other persons in the interim between application for registration and the registration with the consequences fixed by s 53(1). It seems to have been accepted by the Court of Appeal in Tavener Rutledge Ltd v Specters Ltd (1959) RPC 355 that an applicant for registration might properly commence a suit for infringement of his mark in respect of acts done in the period after the date of his application for registration of the mark and before the entry of its registration. Doubtless, such proceedings could not succeed unless before the time for the making of the order or decree the mark had been registered. But having been registered, the former applicant for registration who had commenced suit before registration was held entitled to succeed in respect of the acts I have referred to, regarded as infringements of a registered mark.
39 Further, in Colbeam Palmer Ltd v Stock Affiliates Pty Ltd [1968] HCA 50; (1968) 122 CLR 25 Windeyer J dealt with a case in which a trade mark had been assigned, the consequence of which for the infringement suit and claimed relief of an account of profits was that the assignor and assignee both had rights to an account relating to the period for which they were each the registered owner of the infringed mark.
40 The point that ICI was making is that the legislative scheme assumes that the applicant for registration will be the owner of the mark and thus capable of assigning it, either before or after registration. Once registered, there will be a registered owner. The registered owner might change over time by assignment of the mark. The assignee will then become the registered owner. The registered owner's rights include those under s 126(1)(b) to claim relief for infringement by way of an account of profit or damages. While there may be only one or joint registered owners at any one time, infringements may and usually will occur over time. The plaintiff entitled to relief within the meaning of s 126(1)(b) by way of an account of profits or damages necessarily will be the registered owner of the mark at the time of the infringement. Within such a scheme, where the rights of the registered owner extend back to the filing date of the application, it is essential that the initial applicant on the filing date be the owner of the mark. Otherwise, the applicant cannot transfer ownership of the mark by an assignment in accordance with the legislative provisions on and from the filing date and can claim on becoming the registered owner an account of profits or damages for infringement when not in fact the owner of the mark.
41 The importance of ownership at the application date is also reinforced by the multiple stages at which the requirement operates. First, only an applicant claiming to be an owner may file an application (s 27(1)(a)). Second, registration may be opposed on the ground that the applicant is not the owner of the mark under s 58 which, as we have said, must be understood as the owner of the mark at the time of the filing of the application. Third, under s 88 an aggrieved person may apply to have a trade mark revoked on any ground on which the registration of the trade mark could have been opposed.
42 Apart from these considerations, it would be surprising if more than a century of law to the effect that an applicant for a trade mark must own the mark were to be swept away by a side-wind because of the introduction of provisions which are explicable by the more limited object of permitting the assignment of trade marks the subject of a pending application.
43 For these reasons, we consider that the obiter dicta in Crazy Ron's at [128] is wrong and, if it be necessary to say so, is plainly wrong. It follows that Mobileworld at [83] and Global Brand at [131] - [134] are also wrong. It also follows that a further ground on which IR's appeal against the Registrar's refusal to register the IR composite mark had to be dismissed was that the applicant for registration, Mr Pham, did not own the IR composite mark at the time of his application. He was not then the author of the mark, as IR was the author. He did not intend to use or authorise IR to use the mark. He intended only that IR use the mark. The consequence is that ICI's ground of opposition under s 58 was established and ought to have succeeded before the primary judge.
44 A necessary consequence of our conclusions above is that the purported assignment of the trade mark from Mr Pham to IR after the filing of the application, on 1 July 2013, was immaterial. The requirement for ownership applied at the filing date of the application on 7 December 2011. Nothing which happened after that date could cure the deficiency in ownership at the application date.
45 We also agree with ICI that, in any event, the purported assignment by Mr Pham to IR could not have been effective to transfer ownership of the IR composite mark as, for the reasons the primary judge gave which are not the subject of this appeal, IR not Mr Pham owned the mark. Mr Pham could not assign that which he did not own. As noted, ss 106 to 111 concern the assignment of a trade mark, not the assignment of an application for a trade mark. But even if there could be an assignment of an application for a trade mark, it would not overcome the problem in the present case that the owner of the IR composite mark was IR and IR did not apply for registration of the mark.
46 Finally on this aspect of the appeal, the belated attempt on behalf of IR to assert some kind of constructive trust need not be considered for two reasons.
47 First, it cannot cure the fact that Mr Pham, who did not own the mark, made the application. On the unchallenged facts as found by the primary judge, Mr Pham did not have any legal or equitable interest in the IR composite mark. Mr Pham made the application claiming to be the owner when he was not. The inchoate right which he obtained by reason of the mere filing of the application was not a right of ownership, which given the lack of prior use of the IR composite mark depended on the combination of authorship, filing and an intention to use or authorise the use of the mark, a combination found on the facts by the primary judge not to be satisfied. It was Mr Pham who had to own the mark by one of the two available means at the time the application was filed. He satisfied neither means. Moreover, her Honour's factual findings are not consistent with any division between the legal interest and the equitable interest in the IR composite mark at the time of the filing of the application. It is not apparent how a constructive trust could therefore assist in avoiding the effect of the statutory provisions. Moreover, to talk of a constructive trust over the application, as distinct from the mark, lacks conceptual coherence for other reasons that we do not need to dwell on.
48 Second, the assignment issue was raised before the primary judge who dealt with it at [70]. It is apparent that the possibility of a constructive trust was not raised before the primary judge. Further, the assignment was in issue in the appeal, yet IR made no reference to seeking refuge in a constructive trust argument in its written or oral submissions until its oral reply. Leave to rely on this ground would be required. Given that it was raised only in oral reply, the point was not developed in any meaningful way. As a result it would not be appropriate to say more about the issue.