Trademark process in Australia (in a nutshell)

For many businesses, registering their trademarks may be way down on their to-do lists… specially when just starting up. However, it might be one of the best decisions you make on the early days of your venture - not to mention, the amounts of headaches you could save yourself when having your rights adequately protected from the get-go.

First, it is important to note that registering your business with ASIC (Australian Security and Investment Commission) does not protect your name, brand or logo. Many business owners think that registering your business and your business name with ASIC will protect them from copy-cats or people that use marks too similar to their own. This is not the case! Same happens with domain names - these do not give you exclusive rights to your brand. To protect your brand name and logos you must lodge a trade mark application with IP Australia (Australia’s trademark office). Only registering your trademark will give you exclusive rights to your brand.

Registering a trademark takes around 7-8 months. After lodgement, an application takes 3 to 4 months to be examined, after which it gets published and opened to oppositions by third parties. If nobody opposes your trade mark (or you defend these oppositions with the trademark office), your mark will be registered.

When you have a registered trademark, you will have a solid record of your filing and registration date, which will allow you to assert or enforce your exclusive rights against parties that are trying to use your brand without your consent.

In order to register a trademark, you must:

• be the first user of the mark, or the first to apply to register the trademark (so always make sure you register before others that may want to use your name or logo);

• make sure it is not descriptive, and not a surname or location;

• file it in the correct class(es) for goods and services; and

• confirm that it is not the same or too similar to existing trademarks (or others subject to pending applications).

Once registered, you will be protected for 10 years (renewable) and will be able to:

• use your mark in relation to the specific goods and services;

• license it to others to use; and

• start legal action and enforce your rights in court if someone is using it without your permission in relation to same or similar goods.

So make sure you protect what is most valuable to your business, and avoid the headaches, so you can focus on what’s really important.

Get in touch if you want to chat about registering your brand or logo in Australia.