Jaguar Cars Limited and its subsidiary, the Jaguar Collection Limited, have lost a High Court challenge to a decision of the Controller of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, which awarded registration of the "Jaguar" word mark to a Swiss watchmaker.

The Jaguar companies had sought to overturn the controller's decision of February 25th, 2004, which dismissed their opposition to the registration of the Jaguar word mark by Montres Jaguar watchmakers.

Rejecting the challenge yesterday, Justice Frank Clarke said he was not satisfied there was evidence of a sufficient level of inappropriate behaviour on the part of Montres.

Whatever might be the rights or wrongs of the various disputes between the parties over the years, this was not a case where it could be said that an applicant had sought to "piggy back" on the registration of a foreign mark owned by another proprietor, the judge said.

The uncontradicted evidence was to the effect that the trademark, in respect of the watchmakers, was registered in Switzerland 10 years after Jaguar began manufacturing cars, the judge said.

In those circumstances, he would dismiss the appeal.

Montres Jaguar, whose watches bear the "Jaguar" mark, had argued that the plaintiff traded in cars and not watches. It also noted that Montres Jaguar had used the Jaguar trademark since the 1940s.