Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

AUSTRALIAN HEARING SERVICES ACT 1991 - SECT 66

  (1)   A person must not, unless the Authority consents in writing:

  (a)   use in relation to a business, trade, profession or occupation; or

  (b)   use as the name, or as part of the name, of any firm, body corporate, institution, premises, vehicle, ship or craft (including aircraft); or

  (c)   apply, as a trade mark or otherwise, to goods imported, manufactured, produced, sold, offered for sale or let for hire; or

  (d)   use in relation to:

  (i)   goods or services; or

  (ii)   the promotion, by any means, of the supply or use of goods or services;

either:

  (e)   a protected name, or a name so closely resembling a protected name as to be likely to be mistaken for it; or

  (f)   a protected symbol, or a symbol so closely resembling a protected symbol as to be likely to be mistaken for it.

Penalty:   30 penalty units.

  (2)   Nothing in subsection   (1) limits anything else in that subsection.

  (3)   Nothing in subsection   (1), so far as it applies in relation to a particular protected name or in relation to a particular protected symbol, affects rights conferred by law on a person in relation to:

  (a)   a trade mark that is registered under the Trade Marks Act 1955 ; or

  (b)   a design that is registered under the Designs Act 2003 ;

and was so registered, or was registered under the Designs Act 1906 , at the protection time in relation to the name or symbol.

  (4)   Nothing in this section, so far as it applies in relation to a particular protected name or in relation to a particular protected symbol, affects the use, or rights conferred by law relating to the use, of a name or symbol (in this subsection called the relevant name or symbol ) by a person in a particular manner if, at the protection time in relation to the protected name or protected symbol, the person:

  (a)   was using the relevant name or symbol in good faith in that manner; or

  (b)   would have been entitled to prevent another person from passing off, by means of the use of the relevant name or symbol or a similar name or symbol, goods or services as the goods or services of the first - mentioned person.

  (5)   In this section:

"protected name" means any of the following names:

  (a)   "NAL";

  (b)   "National Acoustic Laboratories";

  (c)   "Australian Hearing Services".

"protected symbol" means:

  (a)   the official symbol of the National Acoustics Laboratories, the design of which is set out in Schedule   1; or

  (b)   the official symbol of Australian Hearing Services, the design of which is set out in Schedule   2.

"protection time" , in relation to a protected name or a protected symbol, means the time immediately before:

  (a)   in the case of the official symbol of Australian Hearing Services--the commencement of Part   4 of the Health and Community Services Amendment Act (No.   2) 1993 ; or

  (b)   in any other case--the commencement of this Act.