"Honest Concurrent Use" as a Ground to Overcome the Refusal of Trademark Registration

[Alex Gakuru]

Happy New Year,

Perhaps a reflection of this on Internet policy may be
beneficial?(Especially, where very many marks are registered solely or
largely  with the intention of locking out others, or cashing in on
the marks later...) As expressed at the Seoul meeting, one may be
excused for  being concerned that poorly-connected developing regions
with weak, immature, or non-existent IP/trademarks/copyright regimes
may be shocked to realise that marks and/or names exist no more when
they finally get connected?

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Honest concurrent use is one of the uncommon grounds a trademark
applicant in Hong Kong can rely on to overcome an objection to a
trademark registration that conflicts with, or would take unfair
advantage of, or would be detrimental to, an earlier mark.

An example of "honest concurrent use" is when the owner of a mark has
obtained registration but has never used or has very limited use of
it. However, during the term of the registration, another person or
company has honestly and concurrently used an identical mark in
similar goods or products. May the person or company then rely on the
ground of "honest concurrent use" to support its trademark application
to the Registry if the application is rejected due to its potential
conflict with the registered mark?
[....]
- - snap - -
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=119156