AUSTRALIA POST, that iconic brand that delivers to our office a ridiculous volume of shoes, skirts, dresses, surfboards, ski boots, wall hangings and pretty much everything else our staff buy online, tried to halt the use by another company of the name DIGITAL POST AUSTRALIA.
Australia Post said that DIGITAL POST AUSTRALIA is deceptively similar to AUSTRALIA POST when referring to digital mail services, but sense prevailed and the court disagreed.
The similarities aren't too hard to spot. Turn 'Australia Post' backwards, add the word 'digital' and what do you have? DIGITAL POST AUSTRALIA.
So how does the court decide these disputes?
The test is quite simple: Would you be confused between the two services and think they came from the same place?
In this case the court said no. The two are visually and aurally different and when looking at the surrounding circumstances (like advertising, promotions and how and where the products are sold) the average person wouldn't be silly enough to be confused.
For a comparison, in 2005 the court said that HEALTH PLUS and INNER HEALTH PLUS were deceptively similar.
And yes, we have had a surfboard (mini mal) and ski boots delivered to the office. It was super exciting - the ski boots were mine.
We do not disclaim anything about this article. We're quite proud of it really.
