Articles and Updates

In this article, we discuss the maintenance requirements of member countries of the Madrid Protocol. While most members only require that the international registration be renewed via the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) when it falls due (10 years from lodgement), some member countries have additional maintenance requirements. The Madrid Protocol has in recent years […]

Further to our article on how to protect your trade marks internationally, an important part of any international brand strategy is to consider where to file your trade mark. This may sound odd; of course you will want to file your trade mark in countries where you are using, or will use your trade mark

This is the first in a series of articles concerning international trade mark protection. In this article we have outlined the ways in which brand owners in Australia can protect their trade marks internationally. How can local brand owners register trade marks internationally? First and foremost, trademark rights are territorial. Therefore, trade marks should be

In Australia, as in most countries, when filing a device/logo trade mark in black and white, you will be afforded protection for the trade mark not only in black and white but in any colour. In fact, if you want your trade mark to be protected for specific colours in Australia, you must apply for

Why are Chinese language marks important? China is Australia’s largest trading partner and for any business, protection of their brands in China should be carefully considered. However, when it comes to China, many Chinese consumers have a limited knowledge of the Latin alphabet. In fact, according to the World Population Review, the current population is around 1.4

What is a registered design? A registered design right protects the overall visual appearance of a new and distinctive product such as shape, colour, configuration, pattern and/or ornamentation. However, a registered design does not protect the function of a product – only its visual appearance. The current Designs Act 2003 (Cth) contains a number of

Since 2016, news of Brexit has dominated headlines but in the past 12 months Brexit has disappeared from the front page as COVID began dominating our newsfeed.  However, Brexit has been quietly ticking along behind the scenes. The UK’s exit from the EU came into effect on 31 January 2020 and a transition period was

The .au Domain Administration (auDA) has recently announced changes to the eligibility requirements for .com.au and .net.au domain names to come into effect from 12 April 2021. A registrant of a domain name under the .au top level domain (TLD) must, amongst other criteria, be “Australian”.  Currently, a foreign company will satisfy this criteria if

Fiji’s current trade mark law is based on British trade mark legislation enacted nearly a century ago and therefore it is well overdue for an overhaul. Currently, the Act provides for independent registration of trade marks in respect of goods but not services or registration as of rights based on United Kingdom registrations. Goods are

If I had a dollar for every time I have heard “but I registered the business name without a problem, why can’t I have the trade mark?” I would be very well-off indeed! This is a common misconception and is the source of much confusion with businesses. Businesses looking to use a brand as their