Recent Mauritian trade mark judgments bring home just how
investor-friendly Mauritius is. They also illustrate how keen the
Mauritian trade mark authorities are to follow international
precedents, especially UK and EU decisions.
The judgments of the Industrial Property Tribunal in the cases
of Shangri-La Tours Ltd v Shangri-La International Hotel
Management Limited and the Controller of Industrial Property
Office (14 October 2019) dealt with applications by a local
company to cancel trade mark registrations in the name of an
international group for the marks comprising the word Shangri-La
(in one case with the words Le Touessrok & Spa added) in
classes 35, 41, 43 and 44.
There were a number of grounds of attack. These can be
summarised as follows:
