marks this year, the House of Assembly was told on Wednesday.

Introducing The Government Fees (Trade Marks and Service Marks) Regulations 1993, Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul said a new source of income from registering service marks would account for about half of the increase.

Service marks -- through which a piece of computer software or a process can be registered like a trade mark -- are becoming more common, Dr. Saul said.

In 1991-92, Government took in about $107,000 in fees from registration of trade marks. In 1992-93, that is expected to jump to $216,000, with about $50,000 coming from service mark registrations, he said.

As well as setting fees for service marks, the new regulations increased the fee schedule for trade mark registrations by about 22 percent. "The principle in computing the new fees is the cost of doing it and the complexity of the work,'' Dr. Saul said.

The new schedule has fees ranging from $3 to $200.

There were 13,250 trade marks registered in Bermuda, "and a sizable number of service marks in the hands of attorneys awaiting introduction,'' he said.

Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade said the Progressive Labour Party backed the bill. He said: "It's a nice easy way to increase the size of the consolidated fund.''