In Australia, it’s possible to have rights in a trade mark that is unregistered simply by virtue of using that trade mark. That is what’s referred to as a common law trade mark. And whilst it’s possible to enforce rights, in other words, to protect a common law trade mark, the cost of doing so […]

Once a trade mark application is filed it needs to be examined by IP Australia, and during examination, this sometimes leads to the examiner raising an objection that the trade mark is not sufficiently, inherently distinctive in relation to the goods or services that you’re claiming. This is because, by definition, a trade mark is […]

When you file a trade mark application in Australia, it gets examined by IP Australia. One of the possible grounds for an examiner’s objection in Australia is if your trade mark is too similar to another trade mark that is already on the register; where there is a pending application or a registered trade mark […]

It’s quite common for businesses to use more than one logo or stylised trade mark for their goods or services. And deciding whether to register more than one logo, or alternatively deciding which logo to register as your trade mark depends on a few factors. The first one would be how different are the logos […]

A business name registration only registers the name of your business, for the purposes of allowing the public to know who they’re dealing with. This is a legal requirement when trading a business under a name other than the legal entities’ name. A business name doesn’t have legal personality itself, it’s more like an alias […]