How long will my trademark registration take?
Once you have submitted your trademark application via Trademarks Online, we will submit your trademark application to the Australian Trademark Office (IP Australia) within one business day. That’s the quick part.
The Trademark Registration Process in Australia
Your trademark is not automatically registered. It must first be examined by the Trademark Office to check that it is a legally registrable trademark. After the application has been submitted to the Trademark Office, you can expect to wait around 6 months or more for the Trademark Office to complete examination of the trademark.
The Trademark Office is currently experiencing an examination backlog, which means that it can take six or more months before your application is even examined. Then, if all goes well, the application is published for 2 more months (to allow third parties to oppose) before it is registered.
Once your application gets to the front of the queue, a trademark examiner will check your application.
If your trademark does not meet the legal requirements to be registrable, you will receive a notice of a trademark objection. Common objections to trademark applications are that the mark is not sufficiently distinctive or too descriptive of the goods or services covered to qualify for trademark registration.
Sometimes the Trademark Office raises formalities objections such as incomplete company or owner details. These we will fix for you at no extra cost, but they can cause a slight delay in the process. Once your trademark application has been submitted to the Trademark Office, we will send you a notification via email, so please check your spam folder if you don’t hear from us after one business day.
After that, you may not hear from us again for several months, until your trademark has been examined. However, once examined, we will email you to notify you that your application has been accepted or inform you if there are any objections.
After any objections have been resolved and your trademark has been accepted, the Trademark Office will publish your application for a period of 2 months. During this time, any third party may formally oppose registration of your trademark by submitting a trademark opposition. Thankfully this is rare and happens in less than 1% of the applications submitted to the Trademark Office via Trademarks Online.
Assuming no oppositions are filed, your trademark will proceed to registration after the two month opposition period expires and the Trademark Office will issue a registration certificate. We send you an email with this good news and you will receive your certificate and trademark registration number. You can then use the registered trademark symbol ® with your trademark and enjoy the exclusive rights that a registered trademark affords your brand.
