Did you know Australia has 45 different classes of goods and services to check during a trade mark search? Checking all the trade mark categories can be overwhelming for first-time searches, but it’s important to make sure your brand doesn’t conflict with any existing rights.
As Brisbane’s expert intellectual property lawyers, the team at Kings IP knows how important an accurate trade mark search is. Currently there are two main ways to search for registered trade marks in Australia: TM Checker and the Australian Trade Mark Search system (ATMS). To make your search easy, we’ll guide you step-by-step through trade mark searches using both options, showing you how to avoid common mistakes in DIY searches and when to get professional help. We’ll make sure you understand how to protect your brand’s valuable assets in the Australian market.
You need to know exactly what you’re trying to protect before starting a trade mark search. Australian trade mark registration comes with specific requirements that you must meet.
Australian trade marks are signs that set your goods or services apart from other businesses. Your mark must be something you can represent graphically, meaning you need to show it visually through words, images, or other methods. As well as that, it must stand out from others in the marketplace.
The Australian Trade Marks Act lets you register various types of marks:
There’s more to it than just this list, and not every mark qualifies for registration. Generic terms that describe your product or service won’t make the cut. For example, a brewery trying to register “Cold Beer” might be rejected because it lacks distinctiveness.
Your mark needs to stand out from your competitors’ goods or services, and the more distinct your mark, the stronger protection you’ll get.
Distinctiveness works on a spectrum:
Understanding what you need to protect helps you pick the right search tool. IP Australia gives you two main options to search for trade marks, and each has its own strengths.
TM Checker is a free tool that helps with your original trade mark assessment. It uses artificial intelligence to review your proposed trade mark against IP Australia’s internal data. TM Checker works best if:
TM Checker doesn’t need an online account, which makes it easily accessible to small businesses and first-time applicants. All the same, note that TM Checker results can’t guarantee your application’s outcome.
Australian Trade Mark Search gives you a complete search experience. The database has details of all registered and pending trade marks in Australia. ATMS is your best choice if:
ATMS updates happen daily and include records going back to 1906, giving you access to both current and historical trade mark information.
ATMS gives you two main ways to search.
Quick search lets you look up trade mark words, owner names, and numbers. Special characters help broaden your results – asterisks (*) replace multiple characters, question marks (?) work for single characters, and quotation marks find exact phrases.
Advanced search gives experienced users more options. You can search up to four words at once and filter results by goods classes, trade mark status, and mark types.
These tools help with initial searches, but they have limits that trade mark attorneys can help you work around.
Ready to start your search? Let’s walk through the steps to get a full picture of potential conflicts when searching for trade marks.
Your first task is to write down what you want to protect—whether it’s a word, logo, or both—and list the products or services you’ll offer. Making everything as clear as possible will give you more accurate search results.
Start with the quick search function to find matches similar to your proposed mark. Don’t just look for exact matches. Try adding variants and misspellings to make sure you don’t end up trade marking something that could cause disputes later on.
Trade mark law looks beyond exact matches and includes substantially identical or deceptively similar marks. You should look for sound-alikes (e.g. Kleener vs Cleaner) since these can confuse consumers and lead to objections.
You’ll need to identify which of the 45 classes apply to your business. Your protection only extends to the specific classes you register in, so think about both current offerings and planned expansion.
Each potential conflict needs close attention. Look at whether similar marks are:
Databases show only registered marks, but even unregistered trade marks have protection under common law principles. A thorough search of Google, social media, and business directories will help you find businesses using similar names that might challenge your use.
Even when you follow all the search steps above, DIY trade mark searches have limitations that could affect your brand’s protection.
Launching a new brand is a big investment of time and money, and it pays to get things right. Unless you’re an IP expert, it’s easy to miss potential conflicts even when you search carefully. A misleading search might give you a false sense of security, only for you to run into trouble later on when disputes arise. DIY searchers might also have trouble understanding the nuances of similarity standards and miss marks that examiners would call deceptively similar.
Professional searches go beyond simple database checks to cover:
Whether you run preliminary searches yourself or get professional help right away, knowing the trade mark search process is vital to protect your valuable intellectual property in the Australian market. The right brand protection from day one prevents expensive rebranding and legal disputes down the road. And while TM Checker and Australian Trade Mark Search offer tools for research, they’re just one part of a complete trade mark protection strategy. The last thing you want is to miss something in a DIY trade mark search that can get pricey and lead to rejected applications.
Kings IP is here to help, giving you complete clearance searches to give you peace of mind. Our Brisbane trade mark attorneys can discuss all the available options for protecting your brand name and help you decide what’s right for your business.
Book a free consultation to see how we can help you understand how to register a trade mark in Australia.
