Government has acknowledged that red tape is hindering the country’s productivity and economic growth and has committed to simplifying and streamlining some compliance requirements to enable businesses to use their time and resources more constructively. The trade mark process has been earmarked for potential technical and administrative reforms. Could Australia’s trade mark system be simpler? […]

Seventeen years after music megastar, Katy Perry, and Sydney businesswoman, Katie Jane Taylor (nee Perry) first communicated about their similar names, the High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of the clothing designer. The see-saw battle centred around who had the right to market and sell clothing under the Katie Perry/Katy Perry name in […]

Are you a business owner facing an opposition to your trade mark application? If you’ve answered ‘yes,’ you’ll welcome the recent announcement by IP Australia that the period allowed for filing your Notice of Intention to Defend (NID) has been doubled from one month to two months. This extended deadline came into effect on 19 […]

A raft of changes to Australia’s trade mark laws which came into effect in late November and December 2025 will have a significant impact on small business owners around the country in the coming months and years. The Trade Marks Amendment (International Registrations, Hearings and Oppositions) Regulations 2025 amend the Trade Marks Regulations 1995.  They […]

Traders have always been expected to adopt trade marks honestly and to use them honestly.  Historically, in the event of an objection due to earlier similar trade marks, examiners were inclined to take a declarant’s word at face value when they were explaining why they’d chosen a particular trade mark and whether they had been […]