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What is a Headstart trademark application in Australia?

Australia is quite unique as it offers two types of trademark application filings:

  1. Standard filing
  • You get an immediate filing date
  • You cannot make changes to your application or list of products/services
  • Your trademark is reviewed after filing
  • Your trademark proceeds through a standard examination process until registration

 

  1. Headstart filing
  • This is pre-application services provided by IP Australia
  • You pay higher filing fees (AUD$400 vs. AUD$250 per class) but you only pay AUD$200 at the beginning
  • Your trademark is assessed by an Examiner before it is filed.
  • You get a report within 5 days of filing. Once you get the report you can decide if you want to proceed further. If you want to convert your application into a Standard application, you have to pay the remainder of the fees.
  • You can make changes to your trademark or description once you get the report.
  • Once your trademark is converted, you get a formal filing date and no more changes are allowed.
  • Your trademark proceeds through a standard examination process until it registers

 

While a Headstart application may be a great choice there are some important drawback of this filing:

Since you don’t get a filing date immediately, what if somebody else filed a similar trademark while you were waiting for the Headstart report?

Trademark Office is not bound by the Headstart report and can issue different objection at a later date.

If your products are unique and not in the picklist, Headstart may not be the best choice since it only allows to pick the products/services from the list of pre-approved goods and services.

How do you know which one to use? We can usually advise when Headstart may be reccommended. If we find similar trademarks and unsure that your trademark will register, we can recommend Headstart trademark application filing first. If you don’t want to invest a ton of money in your marketing campaign and want to maximize your chances for your trademark to be approved, Headstart may be the answer.

Once we receive a Headstart examination report, you can then make a decision whether to proceed with the filing.

 

How long are trademarks valid for?

Trademarks can last forever if they are renewed on time. Keep in mind you will have to continue using your trademark to keep it in good standing.

In the US, you must renew your trademark every 10 years. The 10 year term is counted from the registration date. In addition, between the 5th and 6th year after the registration date, you must file an “affidavit of use” to keep the registration alive.

In European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and Australia, you have to renew your trademark every 10 years. The 10 year term counts from the application date.

In China, trademarks have to be renewed every 10 years. The renewal period is counted from the date of registration.

In Canada, a trademark has to be renewed every 10 years (the renewal period was changed from 15 to 10 years in June of 2019). The 10 year term counts from the registration date.

 

How long does it take to register a trademark?

Here we rank the countries where we file from the fastest to the slowest.

1. Germany is the fastest country and overall champion. It takes 1-3 months, on average to register a trademark in Germany. With accelerated examination, most trademarks register within a month. So this is a clear champion in terms of speed. Sometimes Germany can be a little unpredictable as it can take a month for one trademark and 3 months for another trademark.

2. One of the fast and most predictable in terms of timeline is the United Kingdom, where it takes about 3.5-4 months from filing to registration. Added bonus is low government fees.

3. In the European Union, the registration process is about 6-7 months. Not so bad, but the government fees are very high. If your application is filed using “fast-track” method, then the whole process takes about 3.5-4 months. We always EU applications using “fast-track” so European Union is very comparable to the UK (maybe a little slower).

4. It takes about 4-8 months to register a a trademark in Mexico but it can be somewhat inconsistent in terms of the time (sometimes it takes 4 months and sometimes more than 8 months).

5. You will have to wait for about 7.5-8 months to register a trademark in Australia unless we get an objection. Usually most trademarks register within a year or less.

6.  In China, it takes 9-12 months to register a trademark if there are no complications. However, if there is an objection and we have to appeal, registration will be delayed by 8 months. China is determined to make the overall registration process faster, so it’s possible that in 2020 this timeline will be shorter.

7. India is similar to China in terms of timeline. On average it takes 10 months to get a registration certificate if there are no problems during the process.

8. It takes a minimum of 12-14 months to register trademark in the US. If there are office actions (objections from the Trademarks Office), then registration will be delayed. It’s not uncommon for a registration to take a year or longer.

9. In Japan, it may take from 10 to 14 months for a trademark to register.

10. In Brazil trademark registration process takes on average 12-18 months. It’s a pretty long time.

11. The last place is unfortunately taken by Canada. It takes 36-42 months to finish the registration process. If there are objections the overall registration process takes even more time. It’s painfully slo-o-ow. Don’t ask us why. We don’t know the answer. We feel your pain though. Hopefully, as Canada joined Madrid protocol things will improve. We don’t know if and when they will improve. Ever since pandemics began the whole process delayed even more (other countries haven’t been affected so badly).