In Registrar of Trade Marks v Ashok Chandra Rakhit Ltd (Supreme Court, 1955), the Court upheld a…

The Court said that "The real purpose of requiring a disclaimer is to define the rights of the proprietor under the registration" and that "The disclaimer is only for the purposes of the Act". It therefore does not take away rights the proprietor may have apart from the Act, such as a passing off claim based on long use. Under the present Act, section 17(2) similarly denies exclusive rights in matter common to the trade that forms only part of a registered mark.