Having a trade mark is all well and good, but a recent case should serve as a reminder that failing to use trade marks may lead to them being lost. The case involved a trade mark for a cigarette brand which was registered to a tobacco company in the USA.

If renewal of a trade mark is opposed, the owner must prove that it has made genuine use of it for it to be preserved. In the case in point, the company could not demonstrate genuine use of the trade mark for a continuous period of five years and the application to renew it was therefore rejected.