Trade mark enforcement in Australia

Qualifying infringement

Another party could be benefiting from your brand and reputation by using a sign as a trade mark that is substantially identical or deceptively similar to your trade mark. Trade mark enforcement against parties infringing your own registered mark can be addressed either in or out of the courts. In order to establish legal action against a potential infringer, you will need to prove the validity of your IP rights by providing evidence of the following:

1. Your trade mark is registered and in force. Intellectual property rights have expiry dates and in the case of trade marks, the registration needs to be kept up to date. Moreover, the trade mark should be actively used in trade.

2. You are the owner of the trade mark.

3. Another party is actually infringing on your trade mark. This needs to be established because if proven groundless, the accuser in trade mark infringement cases can be ordered by the courts to pay for damages incurred by the accused party.

4. The infringing party does not have authority to use your trade mark.

When can you initiate action against trade mark infringement?

Subject to any agreement between the owner of a registered trade mark and an authorised user of the trade mark, the authorised user may bring an action for infringement of the trade mark:

1. at any time, with the consent of the registered owner; or

2. during the prescribed period, if the registered owner refuses to bring such an action on a particular occasion during the prescribed period; or

3. after the end of the prescribed period, if the registered owner has failed to bring such an action during the prescribed period.

If the authorised user brings an action for infringement of the trade mark, the authorised user must make the registered owner of the trade mark a defendant in the action. However, the registered owner is not liable for costs if he or she does not take part in the proceedings.

Trade Marks Act

The Trade Marks Act provides protection for registered trade marks. Establishing registration is straightforward because a registered trade mark will be entered into the Register of Trade Marks.

While it is often more difficult to prove and more costly, some protection is accorded to unregistered trade marks. The tort of passing off and consumer protection legislation provide avenues for business owners to protect their trade marks from unauthorised use.

Passing off

In the Common Law tort of passing off, a party makes unauthorised use of a get-up, namely, the overall packaging, external appearance, or feel of a product, to profit from another product's established reputation. Registration of a trade mark is not necessary in passing off cases. The elements of passing off are more difficult to establish and generally require:

1. establishment of a reputation or goodwill,

2. there has been a misrepresentation that good/services of one trader are connected with the goods/services of another trader, and

3. there has been damage to (the Plaintiff's) goodwill.

Passing off and trade mark infringement cases frequently overlap but are addressed using different approaches. Compared with infringement, passing off is not covered in any statutory sanction, and is instead ruled based on precedent cases tried in the pertinent courts.

A successful passing off claim can result in an injunction with the possibility of the court also awarding damages in certain cases.

Misleading and Deceptive Conduct

In addition to the above defences, Section 124 of the Act states that infringement is not established when your unregistered trade mark relating to goods and services in question has been used continuously before the filing date (priority date) of the infringed trade mark or the first time that the infringing party or their predecessor started using their unregistered trade mark, whichever is earlier.

It is common to see cases where there is an overlap of passing-off and misleading and deceptive conduct. Since the actions can be related and often also overlap with claims of trade mark infringement, it will be always advisable to have a IP specialist lawyer analyse your situation.

Prior use

In addition to the above defences, Section 124 of the Act states that infringement is not established when your unregistered trade mark relating to goods and services in question has been used continuously before the filing date (priority date) of the infringed trade mark or the first time that the infringing party or their predecessor started using their unregistered trade mark, whichever is earlier.

Pre-commencement of infringement

Court proceedings can be quite costly and therefore, settling disputes outside of court is usually preferable. Once aware of instances of unauthorized use of a registered Trade Mark, it is usual practice for the trade mark attorney to send a "letter of demand" to the infringing party. The letter of demand can be prepared in a number of ways depending on the objective of the Trade Mark owner. This is a pre-condition to commencing litigation in the Federal Court.

Mediation and arbitration may be employed so that both parties can come to a mutual agreement before the issue is escalated to litigation.

Trade mark registration will protect your brand and by association, any reputation that you build in your brand name. It has a value that grows with the growth of your business. If you are considering trade mark protection or enforcing your trade mark rights against a potential infringer, please do contact us.