Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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TRADE MARKS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2003 (NO. 1) 2003 NO. 214

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 2003 No. 214

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Small Business and Tourism

Trade Marks Act 1995

Trade Marks Amendment Regulations 2003 (No. 1)

Section 231 of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act, for prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act and for the conduct of any business relating to the Trade Marks Office.

The Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2003 amends the Act to replace references to the term 'trade marks officer' with the term 'employee'. The definition of 'employee' in section 6 of the Act was amended and the definition of 'trade marks officer' has been deleted.

The purpose of the Regulations is to amend the Trade Marks Regulations 1995 to similarly replace references to 'trade marks officer' with references to 'employee'.

Details of the amendments made by the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 identifies the Regulations as the Trade Marks Amendment Regulations 2003 (No. 1).

Regulation 2 specifies that the Regulations commence on the commencement of Schedule 1 to the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2003, which commenced on 24 July 2003. Therefore, these Regulations commence retrospectively. This is necessary to ensure that the terms used in the Trade Marks Regulations are appropriately defined in the Act.

Subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides that a regulation has no effect if it would take effect before the date of notification and the rights of a person would be affected so as to disadvantage that person or liabilities would be imposed on a person in respect of anything done, or omitted to be done, before the date of notification. These Regulations would not negatively affect any person's rights or liabilities and may therefore be validly made with retrospective effect.

Regulation 3 provides Schedule 1 amends the Trade Marks Regulations 1995.

Items 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Schedule 1 amend paragraph 5.2(2)(a), subregulations 21.13(3) and (4) and regulation 21.24 of the Trade Marks Regulations, respectively, to replace references to 'a trade marks officer' with references to 'an employee'.


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