How to Register a Trademark AU

A trade mark is a form of intellectual property protection in Australia, where you can register your right to a recognisable sign, design or expression of your brand.

You can apply for a trade mark for your business name, logo or even a catchphrase. 

If you want to protect the name of your brand, product or service, it’s a good idea to think about registering a trade mark as early as possible. 

A successful trade mark application gives you an exclusive right to use that brand name, logo or catchphrase for 10 years in Australia. Your registered trade mark can also be renewed every 10 years. 

This means you can enforce this right against anyone else who uses your trade mark in Australia for those goods or services (even if they’re from overseas). 

Our fixed-fee Trade Mark Headstart Packages start at $1030 + GST. This includes an application to register your trade mark, phone consultations with a Sprintlaw lawyer, and IP Australia fees associated with registering your trademark.

This process typically involves the following:

Step 1: We’ll hold an initial consultation to ensure you have all information required to proceed with the application.

Step 2: We’ll apply to IP Australia using TM Headstart (to register 1 trade mark in 1 class for you).

Step 3: If Step 2 is successful, we will apply to IP Australia for a 10-year trade mark registration on your behalf.

TM Headstart is a quick application with IP Australia which can indicate whether your trade mark may encounter any problems in being registered. 

It’s very helpful as a prescreening process. This is because applications with mistakes are non-refundable, and things can get costly if you don’t have everything in check. 

Our expert trade mark lawyers can help you through this two-step process. 

Part 1: This is the application stage. While it does not guarantee the registration of your trade mark, it will assist you in identifying barriers which could prevent you from registering your trade mark. If there are issues, you can revise them or still proceed to Part 2.

Part 2 involves filing the public trade mark application. It usually takes around three or four months for IP Australia to consider your application and provide you with a result. 

1. Asset: It is an asset which can be bought, sold, assigned, and licensed (you have the exclusive right to authorise other people to use your trade mark for the goods or services in your registration).
2. Exclusive Right: A trade mark registration clarifies ownership and you obtain the exclusive right to use the trade mark and to obtain relief for infringement.
3. Deterrent: A trade mark sends a message to the Australian marketplace that a business takes its intellectual property seriously. 
4. Defence: It provides a valuable defence to allegations of trade mark infringement. 
5. Competitors: It can also deter competitors from using or trying to register the same or similar trade mark if they search the Australian Trade Marks Register and find the trade mark registration.
6. Prevent Others: The right to prevent others from using a substantially identical or deceptively similar mark.
7. Renewal: You can maintain the trade mark indefinitely through renewal.
8. Australia: Registration usually gives rights throughout Australia. 
9. Importation: Importation of goods bearing infringing marks may be prevented by asking the Australian Customs Service to seize the offending goods.

As an online law firm, we eliminate the headaches of paying us by the hour and finding time to meet with a lawyer in person. We communicate via phone, email and cloud conferencing — whichever suits you! We know you’re busy, so we’re only a click away.

You’ll be guided through this process by our expert lawyers, who are Australian-qualified and were trained at leading law firms. They left the traditional corporate law sphere to help us make legal services better. Our lawyers specialise in technology, intellectual property, contract drafting, corporate and commercial law.

Our law firm operates completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in Australia. We work at The Commons Central – a cool co-working space in Chippendale, Sydney – but our lawyers often work flexibly across various locations.