In Australian law, a trademark refers to a mark that distinguishes goods or services from other goods or services, including letters, numbers, words, phrases, sounds, odors, shapes, signs, pictures, actions, or combinations of them.
The registration of Australian trademarks is not mandatory, and eligible unregistered trademarks are also protected by the prohibition of counterfeiting under common law or the prohibition of fraud and misdirection under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, as well as by similar legislation in the states or territories, But there are many benefits to trademark registration:
Time required for registration of Australian trademarks:
- If there is no objection, registration will be completed within 10 to 12 months from the date of application.
Content of registered Trademark right:
- Other people are prohibited from using trademarks that are not materially different or may cause confusion on the same or similar products, and "well-known" trademarks can also extend protection to unrelated goods or services.
- The registered Australian Trademark Protection period is 10 years from the date of submission of the application and may be renewed indefinitely. If a trademark has been registered for more than five years but has not been used in the last three years, the application for trademark registration by a third party may be revoked.
Basic introduction of Australian Trademark Office
- Australian intellectual property website: www.ipaustralia.gov.au
- Australian Trademark address: (Ground Floor Discovery House 47 Bowes Street Phillip ACT), 1st floor, Exploration Building, 47 Platinum Street, Australian Capital Territory
- Australian Trademark Office Service Tel: 61 6283 2999
- Australian Trademark Office Fax: 61 6285 4731
- Australian Trademark online Application Web site: https://services.ipaustralia.gov.au/astro-als
- Australian Trademark Retrieval: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/atmoss/falcon.application_start
- Australian Trademark Classification Index: http://xeno.ipaustralia.gov.au/tmgns/facelets/tmgoods.xhtml
- Australian Photo Trademark query: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/tmimages/cgi-bin/tm_image_viewer.pl
Australian Trademark Protection laws and regulations
- (Trademark Act 1995 (Trade Marks Act 1995)
- Trade Marks Ordinance 1995 (Trade Marks Regulations 1995)
- Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Competition and Consumer Act 2010)
- Competition and Consumer regulations 2010 (Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010)
- Code of Conduct for Patent and Trademark agents 2013 (Code of Conduct for Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys 2013)
