Don't be fooled into thinking that the registration of a business, company or domain name will allow you to use that name to the exclusion of others. Only a trademark can allow you to do so.

A trademark, once registered, will give you the exclusive right to use, license or sell the mark for the goods and services for which it is registered.

While it is not compulsory to register a trademark, registration provides an easier and more cost efficient way to enforce the rights conferred by a trademark and may prevent third parties or competitors from using your mark on the same, or even related, goods or services.

trademark information

A trademark protects your brand, company name, product name, or other identifier which is uniquely yours.

In other words, a trade mark is a legally protectable badge of origin that serves to distinguish your goods or services from those of other traders. It is the only way to legally monopolise a name and it can be filed for various goods/products or services, handily classified into 45 classes by an international committee.

Your trade mark could be a word, phrase, letter, number, sound, scent, shape of an object, logo, picture, symbol, signature, colour, aspect of packaging, or a combination of these.

Trademarks need to be filed in one or more of 45 classes of products or services. We can advise you which classes are appropriate and we will also provide a suitable description for your goods and services if you choose to engage our services.

Generally, the first step is to conduct a trademark search to see if your mark has been registered as a trademark by someone else. If it’s given the all clear, then we can proceed with filing the trademark application.

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Once filed, a trademark undergoes examination at IP Australia (the Australian patent & trademark office) and if all a goes well, it is accepted. After acceptance there is 2-month "opposition" period during which third parties can object to or oppose your trademark, but this does not happen regularly. The trademark is registered following the two-month opposition period if it has not been opposed.

If the trademark examination process highlights prior marks that the trademark examiner thinks is relevant then we will work with you in coming up with arguments to overcome these objections as far as possible. This is usually done at extra cost but happens quite seldomly because we do very thorough trademark searches.

pricing

One trademark in one of 45 trademark classes:
$1540
Costs for each trademark thereafter (per class):
$1320

If a trademark is objected to by an examiner, then it will need to be corrected at additional cost, dependent on the complexity of the arguments that we have to raise.

Trademark Searches:

Trademark search and advice based on IP Australia database:
$660
In-depth, common law database trademark search:
$1210

*Please note that a once-off consultation and set-up fee of $295 applies for an initial consultation of 1.5 hours for new clients, following which we draw up a tailored Intellectual Property Roadmap for your concept which sets out all timelines, requirements, as well as our formalised quote and all costs for the next 36 months.

additional information

trademark Advice
trademark Attorneys
trademark searches