Trade Marks and Passing Off

Duly heedful of the warning In your excellent address, "Passing off" I would be scorning As poetic paltriness, So acknowledgment I pay For the metre of this lay.

There exist dishonest traders, Mean enough to be invaders Of the rights of business-men benevolent, Bent on bettering conditions, So to stop these impositions We have duly passed an Act of Parliament. But, alas! Who on this legislation leans, May require the courts to tell him what it means! And define in manner, properly acute, The essentials that a Trade Mark constitute. Well, to put the matter briefly, What we seem to gather chiefly Is it's something that's invented—not a simple English word, Not too obviously explaining What your product is containing, This is surely a condition in some cases quite absurd. So you focus your invention On a quite brand new declension, And you broadcast your achievement to the public, far and wide; Make it sonorous and sounding In the joy of life abounding, And your bosom, as proprietor, will swell with honest pride.