ABSTRACT
Unregistered trade marks have long been and still are recognized by English law. Registered trade marks became available in the UK in 1875. Since 1875 the law has been changed markedly in a series of Acts of Parliament until the present law contained in the Trade Marks Act 1938 as amended in the Trade Marks (Amendment) Act 1984
which for the first time extended the protection of registration to trade marks for services and not merely for goods. Before then, the law on service marks was governed entirely by common law, which had protected all types of trade mark from very early times. And even after over a hundred years of trade mark registration, the protection afforded by the common law to trade marks is so comprehensive that it is still relied on in many cases in addition to the statutory protection of the Trade Marks Act.
