Trade Marks
Trade mark registrations provide the exclusive right to use a particular mark on the product and services covered by the registration, and to prevent or authorise others to use it. When filing a trade mark application it is required to list the goods and services to be covered by the application. Goods and services are classified within 45 different classes depending on the nature of the goods and services for which the mark will be used.
While it is not compulsory, it is strongly advised to conduct a full availability trade mark search before using or filing a trade mark application to ascertain whether there are any prior trade marks in existence that may prevent the use and registration of your trade mark.
Patents
A patent protects the technical aspects of an invention. To be patentable, the way the concept is implemented needs to be new and inventive over any other systems that have been published or used previously. A good website to search for existing patents globally is: www.worldwide.espacenet.com.
Other Legal Consideration
In Australia and other Common Law countries it is important to be aware that in some cases even if a company’s registered Trade Mark has lapsed there may still be a consideration under Common Law that the company has a claim to the use of the trade mark and can protect it.