An Australian trade mark registration only secures your rights within Australia. To protect your brand in other countries, there are 2 options: 1. File a single international application via the Madrid Protocol, or 2. File national applications directly into each country of interest. Australia is party...
Key points: Objections likely if marks are clearly descriptive – may include already common slang Filing with no clear intention to use at the time of filing is not a good plan Resulting registration may not be easy to enforce In the last few months you may have...
Distinctiveness is important because it impacts everything from the registrability of your trade mark, to its scope of protection, to enforceability and its continuing validity once registered. Unfortunately it is something that can be overlooked by brand owners. It is a fundamental principle of trade mark law...
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued new Rules and Regulations which will take effect on 15 February 2020. The new guide, entitled ‘Mandatory Electronic Filing and Specimen Requirements’, has a number of changes including new exceptions for filing paper submissions, and confirmation of...
As US trade marks holders will know, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires validation of trade marks at 6 and 10 years following registration. This is achieved by lodging evidence showing that at least one item included in each class of the registration...
[caption id="attachment_22885" align="aligncenter" width="626"] Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash[/caption] A review of IPONZ official fees for patent, trade mark, and designs took place in 2018. Whilst the review found that no changes were considered necessary for design services, last month changes to fees for trade mark and...
When a trade mark is filed for the first time in a Paris Convention member country and the applicant applies for protection in any of the other member countries within six months of the first filing, the subsequent applications will be treated as if they had been filed on...
By Kellie Jukkola, first published on SavvySME As the proud owner of an SME, you’ve probably been told plenty of times to register a trade mark for your business name or other brands. You might even have a bit of an understanding about the process,...
Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash In trade mark news out of Southeast Asia, Malaysia has passed the Trademarks Bill 2019 bringing it a step closer to acceding to the Madrid Protocol. The amendments will also make way for recognition of non-traditional trademarks in Malaysia, including sounds, smells,...
From 3 August 2019, foreign trademark applicants and registrants must use a US-licensed attorney to file all trademark-related submissions with the United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO). The USPTO has made the changes in an attempt to increase compliance with USPTO regulations and US trademark...