Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2019 to Question 264735 on Musicians: Intellectual Property, what steps the Intellectual Property Office take to verify that an individual who claims the rights to a well-known band name is entitled to do so, prior to its registration under the Trade Marks Act 1994.

As referenced in the answer to Question 264735, where an application is made to register a trade mark, the application is examined in accordance with the Trade Mark Act 1994 and Rules 2008.

For trade mark applications that consist of the name of a well-known band, the examiner will consider the application based on the facts of the application before them and Section 3(6) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 will be considered. Section 3(6) of the Act states that a trade mark shall not be registered if or to the extent that the application has been made in bad faith. In addition to this, every trade mark application is published, before it is registered, for an opposition period of up to three months. During this period, anyone can oppose the registration of a trade mark including where a third party believes that an application has been filed in bad faith - where, for example, facts not visible or apparent to the examiner are known by that third party. This opposition procedure provides a robust mechanism for all parties to submit detailed submissions and evidence.