LEWIS, J.S.C. (Delivering the Judgment of the Court): The appellants, Patierson Zochonis and Company Limited, were proprietors of a trade mark registered in Class 48 in respect of perfumery (including toilet articles, preparations for the teeth and hair, and perfumed soap) which was registered in Nigeria for a period of 14 years from February 2nd, 1960 as No. 10989. The trade mark has no name but is of a device in a horizontal rectangle of an elephant using its trunk to pull fruit from a palm tree with a hill in the background. No colour was registered.
The respondents for their part applied to register, in Class 48 in respect of perfumery (including toilet articles, prepartions for the teeth and hair, and perfumed soap), a device in a vertical rectangle bearing the name "Asirire" (meaning "evening" in Hausa) in letters down the right hand side in an outer border, depicting, within a further vertical rectangle inside, an elephant in the background, bedecked and with a person riding i…