Hanipah Farikullah JCA:

Introduction

[1] This is an appeal against the judgment of the learned learned Judicial Commissioner dated 5 August 2016 which had dismissed the plaintiffs' application under s 45 of the Trade Marks Act 1976 ( TMA ) to expunge the defendant's trade marks. Particulars of registration of the subject marks are as follows:

[2] The plaintiffs contended that the defendant's Registered Trade Marks were registered in contravention of ss 14 and 10(1)(c), (d), (e) of the TMA and therefore should be revoked pursuant to s 45(1). In essence, the plaintiffs contended that the defendant's Registered Trade Marks are not invented or coined words but common generic words and common descriptive terms which are "common property" to all Chinese traders and not distinctive nor exclusive to the defendant alone, in the same course of trade or business.

[3] It is the defendant's case that the above said trade marks, which are the three Chinese characters "Huan Zhai Jin" [] were created by SD4, were newly coined words and not available in any Chinese dictionary and as such, were not common words.

[4] For convenience, we will refer to the appellants as the plaintiffs and the resp