Abdul Aziz Mohamad FCJ:

[1] The respondent has been the registered proprietor of the trade mark "McLaren" (Trade Mark No 9202266) since 11 April 1992, when he applied for registration of the trade mark. The approval of the registration had retrospective effect from that date. The registration is in respect of "articles of clothing, including boots, shoes and slippers" in Class 25.

[2] Over seven years later, on 11 August 1999, the appellant company, claiming to be the bona fide proprietor of the trade mark "McLaren", filed application No 9907641 for registration of the trade mark in respect of "articles of clothing, footwear and headgear" in Class 25.

[3] On 16 February 2001, the Registrar of Trade Marks informed the appellants that their application contravened s 19(1) of the Trade Marks Act 1976 ("the Act") in that the trade mark whose registration the appellants sought was identical with the respondent's registered trade mark or so nearly resembled the respondent's registered trade mark as was likely to deceive or cause confusion. s 19(1) prohibits the registration of such a trade mark in respect of any goods or description of goods.

[4] On 3 March 2003, the appellants, by n