Austin Deasy
Ceist:21 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether trade names of Irish companies such as Waterford Glass can be applied to products manufactured outside this country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Trade Names Use.
There is no statutory prohibition on the use of trade marks registered abroad by Irish companies for products manufactured outside Ireland.
The general position is that registration abroad with the appropriate official authority is the normal way open to an Irish company to protect the property in their trade marks abroad. An Irish registration gives protection to the mark only in Ireland.
Where a mark is registered, the owner of the registration can take action to prevent third parties, not having consent, from using the mark.
Does the Minister not appreciate that what Deputy Deasy is getting at here is the protection of the name of Waterford Glass abroad when the product is not manufactured in Ireland? He is concerned about the image of Irish industry.
If they are using the name abroad in respect of products manufactured abroad, they will have to protect it abroad. Registration in the Irish trade marks office would not give them protection abroad.
I think the Minister is missing the point.
The fear in respect of this company, and other companies, is that the product which may not be up to the very high standard of the product domestically produced is being imported into Ireland and marked here as the original product.
One of the conditions of registration of the word "Waterford" here is that if the product is sold here it must have been made in Waterford. Therefore, it would not be possible to sell in this country glass or crystal manufactured abroad under the name of Waterford. It would, of course, be possible to sell it here under another name.
Is it the position that if Waterford Glass import blanks, cut them here and market them under the name "Waterford Crystal" in Ireland, there are breaking the law?
I did not say that.
That is what I understood the Minister to say.
Many companies import blanks — in fact nearly all of them do apart from Waterford — cut them here and describe them under a variety of names depending on where they have been cut. I did not say what Deputy Barry has suggested because I think that is a different matter.
I have missed the point so.
Can the Minister envisage a situation developing whereby a product such as Waterford Glass can be manufactured and marketed abroad under the name of Waterford Glass but could possibly be of inferior quality and what effect would that have on the original home produced product?
As far as I know from what they have told me, the company are going to some lengths to ensure that that does not happen. They are using a name — I do not know whether they have published it yet — which is the name of the product and in small letters beside it "by Waterford Glass" in order to avoid confusion between what is made in Waterford, Ireland, and what is made elsewhere. The Deputy will appreciate that the company are most anxious to avoid any confusion of that kind in their own interests.
A company may be building up goodwill with a particular name here and setting up an establishment in another country to the detriment of the workers in the home country who are in competition with them by using the name that has been carried on here for many generations. The nub of the problem is where the same company, who open up a competitive company in another country, obtain the benefit of the name built up here.
As that is a statement I am sure you do not want me to comment on it.