LA Group (Pty) Ltd v Stable Brands (Pty) Ltd and Another

An appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal concerned trade mark registrations removed from the register in terms of s 27(1)(a) of the Trade Marks Act. After the SCA had delivered its order on 22 February 2022, the parties jointly alerted the Registrar that paragraph 2(c) of the order contained a patent clerical error: the trade mark registration year was incorrectly reflected as 2013 instead of 2014. Because the order affected a public register of trade marks, the parties sought a formal correction.

Paragraph 2(c) of the order previously granted was amended by deleting the year ‘2013’ and substituting it with ‘2014’.

The case reaffirms the Supreme Court of Appeal’s authority to correct patent or clerical errors in its orders, especially where the order affects a public register such as the trade marks register. It underscores the importance of accuracy in orders with in rem effect and confirms that such corrections do not offend the principle of finality of judgments.