Restriction on Registration
8. (1) The following cannot be validly registered as trade marks:
a) Marks which consist of shape or forms impose by the inherent nature of
the goods or by their industrial function.
b) Marks which consist exclusively of a sign or indication which may serve,
in the course of trade to designate any particularity, such as quality,
quantity, purpose, value and place of origin.
c) Marks, which have become, in the current language or in the bona fide
and established practices of the trade of the country, a customary
designation of the goods concerned.
d) Marks which are contrary to morality or public order and which, in
particular, are calculated to deceive or confuse trade circles or the public
as to the nature, the source, the manufacturing process, the
characteristics or the suitability for their purpose, of the goods concern.
e) Marks which reproduce or imitate armorial bearings, flags and other
emblems, initials, names or abbreviations of names of any state or of any
intergovernmental international organization or any organization created
by an international convention, unless authorized by the competent
authority of that state or international organization.
f) Marks which reproduce or imitate official signs or Hall marks adopted by
a State, unless authorized by the competent authority of that State.
g) Marks identical with or similar to emblems of exclusively religious,
sectarian or tribal organization.
h) Marks which resemble or depict the portrait of a religious or tribal
leader or of any sectarian significance.
(2) Except with the consent of the interested third party the following
marks are not registerable:
a) Marks which resemble, in such a way as to be likely to mislead the
public, a mark already validly filed or registered by a person validly
claiming priority, in respect of the same goods, or of other goods in
connection with which use of such marks might be likely to mislead public.
b) Marks which constitute a reproduction, in whole or in part, an imitation,
a translation, or a transcription, likely to mislead the public, a mark which
is well known in the country and belongs to a third party.