Trade Marks Act 2002

Legal proceedings - Civil proceedings for infringement - Acts amounting to infringement

90: Infringement where non-compliance with certain contractual requirements

You could also call this:

"Breaking the rules about using trademarked goods"

You infringe on a registered trade mark if you own goods that are under a special contract. This contract is between the person who bought the goods (or a previous owner) and the trade mark owner (or someone they allow to use the trade mark). The contract says you can't do certain things with the goods.

You break the trade mark rules if you know about this contract and still do any of the things the contract says not to do. But you're not in trouble if you bought the goods without knowing about the contract and paid a fair price for them.

The things you're not supposed to do with the goods include:

Putting the trade mark on the goods after you've changed them in a way the contract doesn't allow.

If the trade mark is already on the goods, you can't change it, take part of it off, or cover part of it up. You also can't put another trade mark on the goods, or add any writing that might make people think badly of the trade mark.

If there's something else on the goods that shows they're connected to the trade mark owner, you can't take off or cover up the trade mark, even if it's just part of it.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM164681.


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89: Infringement where identical or similar sign used in course of trade, or

"When you can't use signs that look like someone else's trade mark"


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91: No defence that infringement arose from use of company name, or

"You can't avoid trouble by saying you used a trade mark as a company name"

Part 4Legal proceedings
Civil proceedings for infringement: Acts amounting to infringement

90Infringement where non-compliance with certain contractual requirements

  1. A registered trade mark is infringed if—

  2. a purchaser or owner of goods and the owner or licensee of the registered trade mark have entered into a written contract that requires the purchaser or owner of the goods not to do, in relation to the goods, any of the acts listed in subsection (2); and
    1. the owner, for the time being, of the goods—
      1. has notice of the contractual requirement; and
        1. does or authorises, in the course of trade, or with a view to dealing with the goods in the course of trade, any of those listed acts; and
          1. did not purchase the goods for value and in good faith before receiving notice of the contractual requirement; and
            1. is not a successor in title to an owner to whom subparagraph (iii) applies.
            2. The acts referred to in subsection (1) are—

            3. the application of the trade mark on the goods after their condition, get-up, or packaging has been altered in any manner specified in the contract:
              1. if the trade mark is on the goods,—
                1. the alteration, part removal, or part obliteration of the trade mark:
                  1. the application of any other trade mark to the goods:
                    1. the addition to the goods of any written material that is likely to damage the reputation of the trade mark:
                    2. if the trade mark is on the goods, and there is something else on the goods that indicates a connection in the course of trade between the owner or licensee and the goods, the removal or obliteration, whether wholly or partly, of the trade mark.