Australia: Trademark

This is a significant result for registered rights owners and for the law of trade marks in Australia, affirming the protection afforded to registered trade mark holders against concurrent users who cannot demonstrate...

IP Australia's fourteenth edition of the Australian Intellectual Property Report reveals significant shifts in IP filing trends, with trade marks and designs reaching record highs while patent applications decline.

The High Court of Australia has delivered a landmark ruling in Zip Co Ltd v Firstmac Ltd that fundamentally changes how businesses must approach trade mark conflicts. This decision clarifies when the 'honest concurrent use' defence applies and establishes that knowledge of a conflicting mark creates serious legal obligations that cannot be ignored.

Unregistered trade marks & their associated goodwill are treated as one in the same.

The High Court of Australia has handed down its highly anticipated decision in Taylor v Killer Queen LLC [2026] HCA 5 in a narrow 3-2 majority, ending a decade-long trade mark battle between American pop star Katy Perry...

The case concerned whether the Australian designer's registered trade mark "Katie Perry" for clothing should be removed from the Trade Marks Register due to the prior reputation of the singer's stage name "Katy Perry".

Having an Australian trade mark registration does not prevent competitors in other countries from registering a similar or identical trade mark.

While successful influencers have enormous global audiences, can their 'trade mark move' be protected?

The case is interesting because it considers logo marks that have a common idea but differences in look and style.