Can you copyright a name in australia [Pictures]



Last updated : Sept 11, 2022
Written by : Kimbra Helmy
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Can you copyright a name in australia

Can you legally copyright your name?

You can't copyright a name. You can copyright written artistic works (like books), but not names or phrases.

How do I copyright my personal name?

How do you trademark a name? You can file an application to register your trademark online. Your application must specify the goods or services associated with your name, and your trademark will extend only to those goods or services.

How do I know if a name is trademarked in Australia?

Trademarks. To ensure your business name does not infringe on an existing registered trademark, use IP Australia's Australian Trade Mark Search. This allows you to search for existing trademarks.

How do I get copyright in Australia?

You don't need to register for copyright in Australia. The moment an idea or creative concept is documented on paper or electronically it is automatically protected by copyright in Australia. Copyright protection is free and automatic under the Copyright Act 1968.

What is the difference between copyright and trademark?

Copyright protects original work, whereas a trademark protects items that distinguish or identify a particular business from another. Copyright is generated automatically upon the creation of original work, whereas a trademark is established through common use of a mark in the course of business.

How do I copyright a name for free?

You can not register a trademark for free. However, you can establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free, simply by opening for business. The benefit of relying on common law trademark rights is that it's free, and you don't need to do any specific work filling out forms, etc.

Do you trademark or copyright a name?

A trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A patent protects an invention. A copyright protects an original artistic or literary work. For example, if you invent a new kind of vacuum cleaner, you would apply for a patent to protect the invention itself.

What happens if someone trademarks your name?

Trademark Registration Then, the owner can face a lawsuit for using the same name as someone else even if the second party registered a trademark for the company after the first owner created the company. These situations usually require the services of a lawyer to both understand and pursue.

Can you copyright your face?

Many wonder, “Can I trademark my face?” Unfortunately, the immediate answer is no. Copyright is only valid for man-made creative ventures. The creative work must be a product of deliberate effort through creativity and conscious choices.

Can I trademark a name already in use?

If you're wondering, "can you trademark something that already exists," the simple answer is "no." Generally speaking, if somebody has used a trademark before you, you can't register the trademark for yourself.

How do I protect my business name in Australia?

You can apply for a business name and other key business registrations through the Business Registration Service. Before you register, make sure you have: identified your business structure. an Australian business number (ABN) or ready to apply for one.

Should I copyright my business name?

Summary. Registering your business name for a trademark isn't required in order for you to have trademark rights. However, a registered trademark can provide greater protection for your brand while helping you build your brand and drive business growth.

Can you trademark a name without a business?

You can't register a trademark for non-business purposes. You can only trademark a brand name that you're using in business or that you intend to use in business in the near future.

How long does copyright last in Australia?

How long does copyright last? Currently, under Australian law, if the creator of the copyright item has been dead for more than 70 years and the item was published within their lifetime, the work generally passes into the public domain (i.e. life plus 70 years).

What is not protected by copyright Australia?

Copyright does not protect inventions, brands, utilitarian objects or circuit layouts which are protected by other areas of intellectual property (IP) – patent, trademark, designs, plant breeder's rights and circuit layouts respectively. IP Australia is the best place to go for information on these areas of law.

How long does a copyright last?

As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

Is Mickey Mouse a trademark or copyright?

People can now create their own stories with the original Mickey Mouse character. However, there are still legal hurdles like trademark law. Disney holds Mickey Mouse trademarks for a variety of commercial uses. And while copyright is time-limited, trademarks are not.

How much is it to copyright a brand name?

The basic cost to trademark a business name ranges from $225 to $600 per trademark class. This is the cost to submit your trademark application to the USPTO. The easiest and least expensive way to register your trademark is online, through the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

What can you not trademark?

  • Proper names or likenesses without consent from the person.
  • Generic terms, phrases, or the like.
  • Government symbols or insignia.
  • Vulgar or disparaging words or phrases.
  • The likeness of a U.S. President, former or current.
  • Immoral, deceptive, or scandalous words or symbols.
  • Sounds or short motifs.

How do you know if a name is trademarked?

You can search for federally registered trademarks by using the free trademark database on the USPTO's website. To start, go to the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Business Center and choose "Search trademarks." Then follow the instructions you see on the screen. Check state trademark databases.


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Can you copyright a name in australia


Comment by Margit Duderstadt

he folks today we're going to be discussing the differences between copyright and Trademark just a quick disclaimer to say that I am NOT an IP professional if you do require intellectual property advice please do seek out professional help so what is copyright copyright is there to protect your original creative works you can't copyright an idea you can copyright things like literary work dramatic works Musical and artistic work as long as they are in a tangible form what do I mean by a tangible form well things like books film recordings websites software photography paintings or graphic design elements like business cards or brochures having the copyright then gives you the exclusive rights to perform distribute make copies of or even make adaptations of your original creative work here in the UK there is no requirement to register your copyright it just happens automatically as soon as the work is created this may be different in your location so please check with your local Copyright Office or intellectual property office to get the full facts on how copyright is assigned in your country protection on copyright generally lasts for the lifetime of the author Plus 70 years again this may be different in your country so please check once you have created your work and the copyright is assigned you then have permission to use that little copyright symbol the little C inside the circle along with the year that the work was created however there is no requirement to use that little C symbol the copyright still remains with you at all times so let's move on to registered marks there are two types of registered marks and both of these can be used to protect the sale of products or services for a business the first is the trademark which is used to protect goods or products and the second is a service mark which you would use to protect services that you provide generally though people tend to use the town trademark to cover both our trademark and the service mark for the purpose of this video I will be using the term registered mark which covers both examples of things that can be covered by a registered mark would be a company name a slogan a sound a color under logo once you have that registered mark you have the exclusive rights to use that mark with your product or service it allows you to stop other companies businesses or organizations from using a similar mark to promote or sell a similar product or service what you can't do is you can't prevent someone from using a similar mark if they are using it to promote or sell a dissimilar product or service let's look at this example of two locals one for Sun Microsystems and the other for Columbia Sportswear now visually these two logos are very similar especially if they were both in black for example and you just had a quick glance at the logos the reason that both of these similar logos can exist and be registered as marks is that there are two completely different industries Sun Microsystems is in software and computing and Columbia is in sportswear two very different industries now however let's say Sun Microsystems were in the spa for businesses while then we would have an issue because they would both have similar marks selling or trading similar products this can't happen so what would happen here is that the company that registered their mark first would be able to prevent the second company from registering the mark which is similar to theirs and in a similar industry in its simplest form registered marks are there to help the consumer differentiate between brands and the products and services that they sell if when you try to register a new mark the internal Property Office will look at existing marks and if they feel that by registering your mark this may cause confusion for the consumer when they are looking to buy a product or service from someone who is in the same industry as you they will deny you that registration once you have registered your mark though you can use the little R symbol inside the circle next to your logo or your brand name unlike copyright registered marks can last indefinitely but they do have to be renewed every 10 years one thing that you cannot do is you cannot register a mark and sit it on a shelf for use at a later date for a registered mark to be viable it must be in constant use so those are the main differences between copyright under registered mark or as I mentioned earlier most people just use the town trademark I hope this cleared up any confusion you may have had in the past about the two terms and you can move forward safe in the knowledge that you have the correct understanding for both for more brand and design advice why not join hundreds of other brand rockers who have signed up to my rock your brand monthly email newsletter it's absolutely free and the advice that I give in there will help you to strengthen your brand and stand out from your competition head on over to rock your brand or quote at UK and sign up until I see you next time folks stay creative


Thanks for your comment Margit Duderstadt, have a nice day.
- Kimbra Helmy, Staff Member


Comment by hirosanD

hi everyone thanks for joining us today for legal visions trademarks 101 webinar my name is rebecca jones and i'm a registered trademark attorney and practice leader in the trademark team at legalvision my name is gracie chen and i'm a lawyer in legal visions ipt specializing in trademarks so our team works closely with a range of clients from startups to enterprises and assist with many aspects of ip and trademark protection including brand protection advice drafting and filing trademark applications in australia internationally responding to trademark objections and enforcing trademark rights in australia today we're going to take you through some trademark fundamentals we'll discuss the life cycle of a trademark some common pitfalls we'll also discuss some practical steps that you can take to protect sorry to protect and enforce your trademark rights we should have time for some questions at the end so please feel free to send these through as we go all right so we'll jump right in um and we'll start with looking at what actually is a trademark so a trademark of any sign that you use to distinguish your goods and services from those of other people and can be a word business name logo slogan color sound and even a smell the most common trademarks that a business will initially protect are the business name and logo and as your business grows however you might find that there are other aspects of your branding that form a large part um of your business and identity it should also be protected so an example of this is mcdonald's so they have the name mcdonald's registered as a trademark um the golden arches symbol and the slogan i'm loving it these are all separate trademarks that mcdonald's uses to represent their company and rent yeah mcdonald's is a great example to demonstrate the different trademarks that a single company can own and have a reputation in so another example of this is nike so this company owns separate trademarks for its business name nike it's tick or swish logo and the slogan just do it as gracie mentioned all sorts of signs can be registered as trademarks some examples of the more unique or non-traditional trademark registrations are cadbury's colored trademark for the colored people in relation to chocolate products and nokia's sound trademark for the well-known nokia ringtone as gracie noted the most common trademarks are a business or product name a logo or a slogan the other more non-traditional trademarks are relatively uncommon particularly set or smell trademarks in fact there are only two of these types of trademarks on the register in australia one being for the smell of eucalyptus applied to golf teas and the other being for the smell of cinnamon applied to furniture products so you might have seen the tm or r symbol used next to a trademark so the tm symbol is used when you want to claim rights in a trademark and can actually be used anytime before registration so if you're yet to apply to register your trademark or it's pending with irp australia you can use the symbol to show the public that you consider the mark as a trademark once citroen mark is officially registered and you've received a registration certificate from if you australia you can use the r symbol so displaying the r symbol can be important for putting competitors on notice of your registered rights in a trademark yeah as gracie mentioned the arsenal can only be used on trademarks once they have been registered and some people don't realize that it's actually an offence under the trademarks act to use the r symbol on an unregistered trademark so it's definitely worthwhile to know the difference now a common area of confusion for businesses is the difference between business name registrations and a trademark say you're establishing your business you've incorporated your company you've registered your business name with ethic and you've secured the top level domains for your name people are often surprised to learn that taking all of these steps doesn't necessarily mean you will be able to use your trademark the business name registration helps you to comply with essex requirements but it does not give you any separate rights in the name as a trademark although your trademark and your business name registration will often match a business name registration and a trademark registration are two entirely different things it's not compulsory to register your trademark although it is certainly best practice to obtain trademark registration and there are a number of important benefits and protection flowing from registration which gracie will discuss in a moment i also just wanted to mention that aside from trademark registrations there are also unregistered trademark rights that can exist so trademark rights can begin accruing from the moment you first adopt and use the trademark in relation to your goods or services so if you if you have commenced use before registering your trademark you actually might have started accruing rights in the trademark as you built up your reputation in the name as mentioned it's still best practice to register your trademark yeah that's a really good point um and as a couple benefits of trademark registration a registered trademark maximizes your brand protection and affords you with a number of rights both legal and non-legal first and foremost having a registered trademark provides you with an exclusive legal right to use that trademark in connection with the goods and services it's registered for so as rebecca mentioned having a business name registration doesn't provide this right so this means that you would have the power to commence action against anyone who is using the same or a similar trademark to you in connection with similar goods and services competitors are less likely to copy or misuse the trademark that's registered and without trademark registration it might be more difficult to stop those parties from copying your friend trademark registration also creates a financial asset that you can license and sell to third parties so you should ensure that you have registered rights to a trademark first before giving someone else permission to use that trademark so this would be relevant if you franchise your business for example to ensure that you have maximum control over how your franchisees will use your trademarks and branding on a similar note you shouldn't be selling a trademark to someone else without having trademark registration in place this is particularly relevant should you ever want to sell your business and it's something that a purchaser will want to know before buying business trademark registration is also important for attracting investment for your business in fact most investors will want to know if you have trademark protection for your brand because it increases your brand's credibility and reduces the risks of disputes with competitors so this means that investors can invest in your business with a greater sense of security and finally registering your trademark will significantly increase your businesses professional image and reputation being able to promote your tradem


Thanks hirosanD your participation is very much appreciated
- Kimbra Helmy


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