No. 59/1932:

MERCHANDISE MARKS ACTS (PROSECUTIONS BY THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE) REGULATIONS, 1932.

MERCHANDISE MARKS ACTS (PROSECUTIONS BY THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE) REGULATIONS, 1932.

WHEREAS it is enacted by sub-section (1) of Section 31 of the Merchandise Marks Act, 1931 (No. 48 of 1931) that the Minister for Agriculture may, subject to the prescribed conditions being complied with, undertake as prosecutor the prosecution of any offence under the Merchandise Marks Act, 1887, or any offence under the said Merchandise Marks Act, 1931 , in cases which appear to him to relate to agricultural produce or to the produce of any other rural industries and to affect the general interests of the country or a section of the community or of a trade or of an industry, and it is enacted by sub-section (3) of the said section that in the said section the word "prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister for Agriculture under the said section.

NOW, therefore, the Minister for Agriculture, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 31 of the Merchandise Marks Act, 1931 (No. 48 of 1931), and of every and any other power him in this behalf enabling doth hereby make the following regulations, that is to say—

1. These Regulations may be cited for all purposes as the Merchandise Marks Acts (Prosecutions by the Minister for Agriculture) Regulations, 1932.

2. The Interpretation Act, 1923 (No. 46 of 1923), applies to the interpretation of these Regulations in like manner as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of the Oireachtas.

3. In these Regulations the expression "the Minister" means the Minister for Agriculture;

the expression "the Principal Act" means the Merchandise Marks Act, 1887;

the expression "the Act of 1931" means the Merchandise Marks Act, 1931 (No. 48 of 1931).

4. For the purposes of sub-section (1) of section 31 of the Act of 1931, the following shall be the prescribed conditions, that is to say—

(a) that the case appears to the Minister to relate to agricultural produce or to the produce of any other rural industries and to affect the general interests of the country or a section of the community or of a trade or of an industry,

(b) where a member of the public alleges that an offence under the Principal Act, or the Act of 1931, has been committed and requests the Minister to undertake as prosecutor the prosecution of such offence, that such member does such (if any) of the following things as the Minister may require him to do, that is to say—

(i) supplies the Minister at his own expense and in such manner as the Minister may direct with the evidence and proofs necessary to prove the alleged offence,

(ii) delivers to the Minister the goods the subject of the alleged offence,

(iii) gives security for the costs and expenses of the prosecution on such terms and in such manner as the Minister thinks proper.

Given under the Official Seal of the Minister for Agriculture.

(Signed), H. G. SMITH.

This 16th day of July, 1932.