Section 36: Acquisition of exclusive right to a mark

36. Acquisition of exclusive right to a mark (1) The exclusive right to any mark shall be acquired by registration in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (2) No mark shall be registered, where it— (a) is incapable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises; (b) is contrary to public order or morality; (c) is likely to mislead any person, in particular as regards the geographical origin of the goods or services concerned or their nature or characteristics; (d) is identical with, or an imitation of, or contains, as an element, an armorial bearing, flag and other emblem, a name or abbreviation or initials of the name of, or official sign or hallmark adopted by, any State, inter-governmental organisation or organisation created by an international convention, unless authorised by the competent authority of that State or organisation; (e) is identical with, or confusingly similar to, or constitutes a translation of, a mark or trade name which is well known in Mauritius for identical or similar goods or services of another enterprise; P4 – 22 [Issue 1] Revised Laws of Mauritius (f) is registered in Mauritius for goods or services which are not identical or similar to those in respect of which registration is applied for, provided, in the latter case, that use of the mark in relation to those goods or services would indicate a connection between those goods or services and the owner of the wellknown mark and that the interests of the owner of the wellknown mark are likely to be damaged by such use; and (g) is identical with a mark belonging to a different proprietor and already on the Register, or with an earlier filing or priority date, in respect of the same goods or services or closely related goods or services, or where it so nearly resembles such a mark as to be likely to deceive or cause confusion. (3) The Controller may refuse to accept an application for the registration of a mark on which appears— (a) the word “patent”, “patented”, “registered”, “registered design” or “copyright”, or an abbreviation of any these words; or (b) any representation of the State, or any colourable imitation of these representations. (4) No mark which contains either— (a) a representation of the flag of Mauritius; (b) a representation of the Arms or Seal of Mauritius; (c) anything resembling any of the representations specified in paragraph (a) or (b); (d) the word “Mauritius”; (e) the word “standard”; or (f) any word or representation, not specified in paragraphs (a) to (e), likely to lead people to believe that the person claiming to be the proprietor of the mark has or recently had authorisation of the Government, shall be registered except with the authority of the Minister.