SSI exemption and assigned brand names: marks from defunct prior users do not bar relief without a continuing trade connection.

SSI exemption under Notification No. 08/99-CE is not denied merely because goods bear a brand earlier used by a defunct company. The decisive test is whether the mark still indicates a connection in the course of trade with another person. Here, the assessees showed authorisation through a memorandum of understanding and deed of assignment, and their trade mark applications were filed in their own names. As the record did not establish any surviving commercial link between the marks and the former owners, the brands were not treated as belonging to others. The exemption remained available and the demand, interest and personal penalty could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether use of the brand names "NUCOR WELD" and "KEMTRODE" disentitled the appellants to SSI exemption under Notification No. 08/99-CE dated 28.02.1999.

Analysis: The exemption turns on whether the mark used on the goods indicates a connection in the course of trade between the specified goods and some other person. The brands in question had earlier belonged to defunct companies, but the appellants produced the memorandum of understanding and deed of assignment showing authorisation to use the marks, and the trade mark applications were also made in their name. The record did not show any surviving commercial connection between the goods and the earlier companies. The department therefore did not establish that the marks continued to belong to others so as to attract the exclusion from exemption.

Conclusion: The brand names were not treated as belonging to others for the purpose of the notification, and the appellants remained eligible for SSI exemption.

Final Conclusion: The demand, interest and personal penalty could not be sustained, and the appellants succeeded in the appeal.

Ratio Decidendi: A brand name assigned by a defunct prior user does not disqualify SSI exemption unless it continues to indicate a connection in the course of trade with another person.

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