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Cleardocs now offers online trademark registration applications

For many Cleardocs customers, registering a company is the first step in starting a business - for them or their client.  Many business owners wish to help protect their business or product names, by registering those names as trademarks.

What sort of trademark can you apply to register through Cleardocs?

You can use Cleardocs to apply to register an English word or name etc. as a trademark.

However, you need to keep in mind that registering any of the following may be hard (expensive) and perhaps impossible:

• words which are descriptive or which are commonly used; or
• words which are substantially identical, or deceptively similar, to an existing trademark for similar or closely related goods and services.

Also, the law makes it impossible to register some words, for example, "ANZAC" or anything that might be scandalous or misleading.

How long does registering a trademark take?

Cleardocs provides a simple online interface to lodge your trademark application.  However, once your trademark application is lodged it will take at least 7.5 months before it can be registered.

To read more about the trademark registration process and the steps involved, please click here.

How much does Registering a trademark cost?

There are fees for both the application to register the trademark (at the start of the process) and the registration (at the end).  Those fees are charged by Cleardocs and by IP Australia, which is the government body that registers trademarks (in the same way that ASIC is the government body that registers companies).

Also, you need to consider:

• the potential costs of handling any issues raised during the Examiner's process (these are impossible to estimate in advance - and are often zero); and
• the fees for renewing the trademark's registration when it expires after 10 years.

For more information about the Cleardocs and IP Australia fees and when they are charged, please click here.

In which country can you apply to register a trademark through Cleardocs?

You can use Cleardocs to apply to register a trademark in Australia.

A trademark registration is effective in only the country in which it is registered - so a registration in Australia doesn't help protect your
trademark in any other country.

More information?

If you would like more information about trademark registration please click here.