We hear this a lot. Not only in our professional roles, but also just in everyday life and especially on social media these days. We think this may come from a misunderstanding that some people have about the nature and the bounds of intellectual property rights, or it could just be as simple as people […]

To start with, we should define trade secrets. Essentially a trade secret is any commercial information that is valuable, and it derives that value by virtue of it’s being kept secret. So some examples of trade secrets include product formulations, financial information, databases, customer lists. The 11 secret herbs and spices recipe, and the Coca-Cola […]

The cost to oppose a trade mark can vary widely, depending on a number of factors. If you are represented by a trade marks attorney, it could cost $1000 or it could cost $15,000 due to these factors. Broadly speaking the cost can be broken down into two kinds. There are official fees that are […]

Yes, it is possible for similar trade marks to co-exist – both as registered or unregistered trade marks. With over 2.1 million trademarks on the Australian trade marks register, it would be fair to assume that there are some similar trade marks coexisting on that register and this is certainly true. Trade mark law has […]

A shape trade mark is a trade mark which consists of three-dimensional shape used to distinguish the goods of one trader from the goods of other traders. The ability to distinguish the goods or services from those of other traders is key to any sort of trade mark, as that’s precisely what a trade mark […]