judgment of the Court, STEYN CJ endorsed the interpretation of TROLLIP J in the
following words (at p 351 E):
"The question is whether the evidence shows that the user was not bona fide in the sense
contemplated in sec. 136. I do not propose to attempt a comprehensive definition of what
the expression "no bona fide user" means in this section. Whatever the full meaning of
the phrase may be, it seems clear that user for an ulterior purpose, unassociated with a
genuine intention of pursuing the object for which
56
the Act allows the registration of a trade mark and protects its use, cannot pass as a bona
fide user.
It seems to me that some assistance may be derived, by way of analogy, from this case in
regard to the interpretation of s. 46 (b) of the Act.
Having regard to the aforegoing and without attempting to give an exact or
comprehensive definition of what constitutes a bona fide description for the purposes of
s. 46 (b), it seems to me that what the Legislature intended to safeguard by means of the
provisions of the subsection is the use by a trader, in relation to his goods, of words,
which are fairly descriptive of his goods, genuinely for the purpose of describing the
character or quality of the goods:
57.
the use of the words must not be a mere device to secure some ulterior object, as for
example where the words are used in order to take advantage of the goodwill attaching to
the registered trade mark of another. In the case before us the evidence establishes that
the word "mica" is not one generally used in the paint trade to describe paint products (cf.
the Coca-Cola Co of Canada Ld v Pepsi-Cola of Canada Ld, (1942) 59 RPC 127, at p
133). Appellant's predecessor in title hit upon the idea of using the word "mica" to create
the. composite word "Micatex" for use as a trade mark; and appellant used this mark for
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