AVIS DE DROIT PROTECTION DES SIGNES NATIONAUX

ROYAUME-UNI
may be tested for truthfulness in respect of all of the goods belonging to that class, including
those goods which have not yet come into existence. It has been held 307 , in addition, that
where an advertisement for goods is false, the offence is committed each time a potential
consumer reads or hears the advertisement. The relatively low fine 308 that can be imposed
upon a summarily convicted offender may therefore be imposed many times over, although
this is subject to evidence of whether the offender actually knew that his statements were
false, of the commercial advantage which he obtained from the false trade description and of
his real ability to pay the fines 309 . Sec. 34 specifies that a trade description may be constituted
by or included in a trade mark and the fact that the mark is registered would not prevent
conviction of a criminal offence if the description were false. Specific criminal offences
punish false claims by traders that their goods or services are supplied to, or approved by, or
of a kind that is supplied to or approved by, Her Majesty or any member of the royal family,
as well as use of the Queen’s Award to Industry without having Her Majesty’s authority to do
so; Trade Descriptions Act 1968, subsecs. 12(1) and (2). A person who, while in the United
Kingdom, induces or assists another person, outside the United Kingdom, to apply a false
trade description to goods to the effect that they or any part of them were made in the United
Kingdom, or to supply or offer goods under such a false description, can be convicted as an
accessory to the principal offence of false trade description; Trade Descriptions Act 1968,
subpara. 21(1)(a). Where a false appellation of origin, regardless of the country referred to, is
applied to goods outside the United Kingdom, they may not be imported into the United
Kingdom. Goods are deemed to have been made, or more precisely manufactured, for that
purpose in which they were last substantially changed; Trade Descriptions Act 1968, subsec.
36(1). A person who contravenes this prohibition does not commit a criminal offence, but is
subject to an administrative penalty and the goods to forfeiture under the Customs and Excise
Management Act 1979.
The British government has the power, under the Chartered Associations (Protection of
Names and Uniforms) Act 1926, to designate individual public interest organisations as
protected from commercial exploitation. Under the first paragraph of subsec. 1(4), it is a
criminal offence for anyone to use the name, uniform or badge of an organisation which has
been so designated, or the term by which its members are commonly known, without having
obtained the approval of that organisation. The only statutory exception is for use as part of a
stage play, circus performance, pageant or cinematographic film. Each unauthorised use may
result in a criminal conviction and a fine of up to £200. Among the organisations which have
been designated as protected under this legislation are the Royal Life Saving Society, the
Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem (which provides ambulance services in the United
Kingdom) and the British Legion (which represents the interests of ex-servicemen and –
women).
A civil remedy for the protection of goods belonging to a class with an established trade
reputation has been available since the end of the 1970s. Until then, a manufacturer of goods
could sue in the tort of “passing off” only when a competitor falsely presented his goods in
307
By the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in Wings Ltd. v. Ellis, [1985] Law Reports, Appeal
Cases 272.
308
Currently a maximum of £5’000, under subsec. 143(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, as
amended.
309
Refer to the jurisprudence cited in Halsbury’s Laws of England, op. cit, Vol. 41, Title “Sale of Goods
and Supply of Services”, para. 498, in the second paragraph of footnote 2.
196