PART VII

Miscellaneous and General

96. —Without prejudice to the powers conferred by this Act upon the Court, proceedings for an order under section 20 or section 23 may be brought in the Circuit Court in the county in which the infringing goods, material or articles are situated or in the county in which resides any person having those goods, material or articles in his possession, custody or control.

97. —(1) A person shall not, without the authority of the Minister, use in connection with any business the State emblems of Ireland notified under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention or emblems so closely resembling the State emblems as to be calculated to deceive in such a manner as to be calculated to lead to the belief that that person is duly authorised to use the State emblems.

(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding £100 for every day the offence continues.

(3) The Minister may apply to the Court for an injunction to restrain any person from contravening the provisions of subsection (1).

(4) Nothing in this section shall affect any right of the proprietor of a registered trade mark containing any such emblem to use that trade mark.

(5) In any proceedings to restrain any action prohibited under subsection (1) or any prosecution under subsection (2) a certificate purporting to be signed by the Controller that the emblem is a State emblem shall be sufficient evidence of its contents unless the contrary is proved.

98. —The Minister may take, in any place outside the State, such lawful steps, whether by way of action or prosecution at law or otherwise, as he shall think proper to prevent, restrain, or to secure punishment for, the registration, use or application, in relation to or in respect of goods not grown, produced or manufactured in the State, of any trade mark or other mark or description indicating or suggesting, or likely to lead to the belief, that the goods in respect of which or to which that trade mark, mark or description is used or applied were grown, produced or manufactured in the State.

99. —Where, in any civil proceedings under this Act, an issue arises as to the use made by any person of any registered trade mark, the onus of proving such use shall lie with the proprietor.

100. —The provisions of the Third Schedule shall have effect with respect to transitional matters, including the treatment of trade marks registered under the Act of 1963, and applications for registration and other proceedings pending under that Act, on the commencement of this Act.

101. —For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that this Act applies to the following waters, namely, the waters in the portion of the sea which comprises the territorial seas of the State, the waters in all areas of the sea to which the internal or inland waters of the State are extended by section 5 of the Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 1959 and the waters in any area which is for the time being a designated area within the meaning of section 1 of the Continental Shelf Act, 1968 .

102. —(1) In any enactment passed before, and in any provision made under any enactment before, the commencement of this Act, any reference to trade marks or registered trade marks, within the meaning of the Act of 1963, shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed after the commencement of this Act as a reference to trade marks or registered trade marks, within the meaning of this Act.

(2) In section 24 of the Consumer Information Act, 1978 —

(a) for the words “the Trade Marks Act, 1963 ”, in each place where they occur except in paragraph (c), there shall be substituted “the Trade Marks Act, 1996”; and

(b) in paragraph (c) for the words “a person registered under section 36 of the Trade Marks Act, 1963 as a registered user of a trade mark” there shall be substituted “in the case of a registered trade mark, a person licensed to use it”.