Trade marks can refer to registered or unregistered trade marks. When I refer to trade marks in this book, I am mostly referring to registered trade marks. Unregistered trade marks have many disadvantages, as set out later in this book. The main one being that a...
Continue ReadingFrom 10 October 2016, the IP Australia official fees are changing. The Trade mark registration fee is being reduced to zero from $300 per class, while the trade mark application fee increases from $120 to $250 per class. This is still a saving of $170...
Continue ReadingA domain name is a URL or website address. Domain names usually fall into two different categories, either: descriptive of the business that owns the domain name, or consisting of a trade mark/trading name/company name/business name belonging to the business. Some businesses opt for both types of domain...
Continue ReadingCopyright is the right to prevent others from copying and modifying what the law calls a “copyright work”. There are certain types of “copyright works” listed in the Copyright Act. Only these types of works attract copyright. Examples of copyright works are written works (e.g. books, blogs,...
Continue ReadingSelecting a company or product name can be very important for a business. This is the name by which customer’s will get to know you. This is the name they will look up in the yellow pages when they want to locate you. And if...
Continue ReadingSocial media sites take impression and click-through revenue from articles generated by the hard work of their membership. Some sites can also copy and make use of any of your posts, including altering them, for whatever purpose that they want, including making all of the content private...
Continue ReadingJust because it is your own name, does not mean that you are entitled to trade under it (even if you have it registered as a company name, a domain name and an Australian business name). If someone else registers your name as a trade...
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Continue ReadingThe case of, REA Group Ltd v Real Estate 1 Ltd [2013] FCA 559 (7 June 2013), has indicated that registering even a descriptive domain name incorporating a logo, can result in a very powerful trademark protection. Read the full decision here. It has always been...
Continue ReadingI have done a trademark search. I have found the identical trademark that I want to use, but it is in a different trademark class to the one I want to register in. Am I safe to use the trademark? NO! You will infringe a registered trademark if you use the...
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