Vol. 384 No. 2
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce, having regard to the fact that a protection for service mark is necessary before any of the new financial services companies invest in the Custom House Docks site, Dublin 1, the progress which has been made towards a new Services Marks Act on which submissions closed in May 1987.
137.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a recent conference in Seoul, Korea, was told that even the smaller countries in the Far East, including Bangladesh and Malaysia, are introducing service mark and that New Zealand has drawn up a Service Mark Act in the past year; and if he will outline his intentions in the matter.
138.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce having regard to the fact that practically all of the recent additional jobs announced by him have been in the service section, his views on whether service mark registration is a priority.
I am fully aware of the growing importance of the services sector to the economy, of its increasing international profile and of the advantages which a system for the registration of service marks would entail for service activity here. As I have previously indicated, legislative proposals, comprehensively updating existing trade mark law and giving effect, inter alia, to a system for the registration of service marks here, are currently being prepared for early consideration by the Government.
The Deputy may wish to know that by far the greater proportion of the many additional jobs recently announced by me are, in fact, in the manufacturing sector rather than the services sector.
