Writing last month in World Trademark Report, Felix Reimers (Advokatfirmaet Grette DA, Oslo) emphasises the importance of trade mark use in his review of Saga Oil ASA v StatoilHydro, a Norwegian Court of Appeal decision of 25 March 2008 concerning use of the name Saga. Back in 1999 Norsk Hydro (now part of StatoilHydro) purchased a company, Saga Petroleum, which first used the SAGA trade marks in 1972. Norsk Hydro held registrations of the SAGA trade marks for goods in classes 1 and 4.

Another company, Saga Oil, was incorporated in 2005 with a view to operating within the oil and gas industry in Russia. A year later, Saga Oil applied to cancel the SAGA marks removed for non-use, which Norsk Hydro denied. The Court of Appeal has since held that the name Saga had not been used in a trade mark sense, since it was not perceived by consumers as indicating the origin of the goods or services covered by the registrations. The court also found that the names of the subsidiaries were used exclusively in connection the company's international business operations, but not within Norwegian territory. Corporate registration in Norway was also held to be irrelevant.