Protecting your Brand

Last week we saw aspiring NFL star Jarryd Hayne commence the process to trade mark his own name in a move to “protect his own brand”. So, what does this actually mean? Brand protection is synonymous with using a particular word, name, brand or logo that is representative of your business, or representative of you as a brand – as in Jarryd Hayne’s case, and trade marking it. Registering your brand as a trade mark enables you to distinguish the goods or services of your business from those of other businesses. Registration gives you exclusive rights to commercially use, license or sell the trade mark. This means that no one else in Australia can commercially use your trade mark within the class of goods and services it’s registered under. Any feature (or combination of features) that distinguishes your goods or services from others can be registered as a trade mark, such as a letter, number, word, phrase, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture or aspect of packaging. How does this differ to registration of a business name, company name or domain name? The difference is that a registered trade mark gives the owner exclusive ownership or proprietary rights to use and exploit the name, brand or logo that has been trademarked, whereas the registration of a business name, company name or domain name does not in itself give you any exclusive ownership or proprietary rights to use and exploit the business name, company name or domain name. Registration of a trade mark is done through IP Australia and an application will generally be assessed three to four months after it has been filed, with the earliest date for registration being 7 months from the application having been filed. The fees applicable to your application will vary depending on the level of protection you are seeking, starting at $120 for each class of goods and/or services you wish to cover in your application. Once your application is accepted, you’ll need to pay an extra $300 for each class for your trade mark to be formally registered and protected for a period of 10 years.