Georgina Hey (AU)

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NUMB: BOTOX reputation insufficient to stop PROTOX

Earlier this month, the High Court of Australia ultimately rejected trade mark infringement and misleading/deceptive conduct claims by Allergan (owner of the injectable BOTOX®) against Self Care’s anti-wrinkle skincare products PROTOX and INHIBOX (marketed under the slogan ‘instant Botox® alternative’). The case has been running for 6 years. Allergan relied on the overwhelming reputation of … Continue reading

(Un)conscious Marketing: Is green really the new black?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on February 28, 2023 Posted in Advertising, Consumer goods, Ethics, Intellectual Property, Litigation

As we settle into a new calendar year, we reflect on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) 2022/2023 compliance and enforcement priorities announcing, amongst other priorities, their commitment to resolving consumer and fair trading issues regarding environmental claims and sustainability. In a recent speech at the Sydney Morning Herald Sustainability Summit, ACCC Deputy Chair … Continue reading

Raising our (Ad) Standards: What environmental claims have Australian regulatory bodies deemed acceptable (or not)?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on February 27, 2023 Posted in Advertising, Ethics, Intellectual Property, Litigation

The recent announcement that the self-regulated Australian Association of National Advertisers’ (AANA) will be undertaking a review of the AANA Environmental Claims Code (Environmental Code) follows the growing community concern about the environment, increased sustainability claims and climate change. The review will focus on making certain that the Environmental Code is meeting its objectives in … Continue reading

Are we (virtually) there yet? Waiting for the rise of the metaverse from a brand owner’s perspective

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Isobel Taylor (AU) on September 29, 2022 Posted in Brands, Consumer goods, Intellectual Property, Patents, technology and innovation, Trademark

We are now almost one year on from Mark Zuckerberg’s much talked-about October 2021 letter announcing, among other things, the change of the name of his company from Facebook to Meta, reflecting the company’s commitment to revolutionising social connection through virtual reality. Zuckerberg’s expansive vision of a metaverse currently remains more of a fantasy than … Continue reading

Act Fast: Priority Period for Short domain names expires on 20 September

By Georgina Hey (AU) on September 15, 2022 Posted in General

Until 20 September 2022, registrants of existing Australian domain names (.com.au) can register an exactly matching short domain (.au) on a priority basis. After this date, such short domains will become available to the general public. This means if you do not act shortly, there is a risk your domain name may fall into the … Continue reading

Planning to import chemicals in to Australia from overseas?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Anthony Brzoska on October 19, 2021 Posted in Consumer goods, Intellectual Property

Australian businesses are increasingly turning to overseas manufacturers to fulfil domestic demand for chemicals and chemical-based consumer products. Year on year, figures show that Australian companies are importing increasing volumes of these products, with some of the strongest performers coming from the domestic fuel, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic sectors of the chemicals-based consumer market. The advantages … Continue reading

IP Report 2021

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Maxine Richard on July 22, 2021 Posted in General, Intellectual Property, Trademark

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Rex Lee and Amy O’Brien in preparing this blog. Intellectual Property (IP) Australia published their 9th annual edition of the Australian IP Report (the IP Report) on 29 April 2021. The IP Report, available here, offers a general overview of the current Australian IP climate. It outlines … Continue reading

Emerging e-commerce trends in China and the potential impact on brands in a global marketplace

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Julie Zhu on May 17, 2021 Posted in General

Background E-commerce has brought many opportunities for brands to expand their footprint and tap into global markets. However, it has also given rise to a myriad of intellectual property (IP) infringement issues for companies, particularly for trade mark infringement and counterfeit activity. As the e-commerce market has matured, new trends have emerged, posing fresh challenges … Continue reading

A new domain: International entities may have met their (exact) match

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Maxine Richard on April 25, 2021 Posted in Domain names

Overview On 12 April 2021, new rules came into place which affect the com.au, net.au, org.au and asn.au namespaces in the .au domain. The new rules apply to all names created, transferred, or renewed on or after 12 April 2021. They were introduced by .au Domain Administration (auDA) to consolidate the 30+ policies previously in … Continue reading

Simpler by Design

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Matt Allen (AU) on January 19, 2021 Posted in Intellectual Property

Changes to the design system under consideration set to benefit Australian Designers – Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020 As we kick off 2021, Australian designers may soon be bringing in the New Year with new design laws. The Designs Amendment (Advisory Council on Intellectual Property Response) Bill 2020 (the Bill) … Continue reading

Manufacturing in China? Chinese courts confirm the benefits of seeking local registered protection

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Henry Yuan on August 3, 2020 Posted in Trademark

Putting aside some recent COVID-related bumps in the road, China remains the world’s largest manufacturer. A large portion of its manufacturing consists of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) under contract. OEM involves manufacturing goods intended for export only, and not for sale domestically in China. This business model has solidified China as a critical manufacturing hub … Continue reading

Demand may be booming, but are breaches looming? We discuss compliance with Australian Country of Origin labelling regulations in the context of COVID-19

By Georgina Hey (AU), Alyson Poole (AU) and Matt Allen (AU) on May 13, 2020 Posted in General

In recent articles, we have commented on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Country of Origin (COO) labelling regulations as they relate to food packaging and more recently, the ACCC’s focus for 2020 on misleading or deceptive claims relating to food packaging. Our previous articles can be reviewed here and here.… Continue reading

Healthy treat or misleading deceit? ACCC intends to crackdown on misleading claims in food marketing

By Georgina Hey (AU), Alyson Poole (AU) and Matt Allen (AU) on March 30, 2020 Posted in Advertising

In February 2020, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its compliance and enforcement policy and priorities for 2020. Amongst the ACCC’s key enforcement priorities will be a focus on misleading conduct in relation to the sale and promotion of food products, including health and nutritional claims, credence claims and country of origin claims. … Continue reading

My oh my Myanmar!

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Matt Allen (AU) on February 5, 2020 Posted in Trademark

The Myanmar government has recently flagged its intention to implement new trade mark laws commencing mid-2020. This is good news for global brand owners hoping for Myanmar’s laws to be better aligned to international trade mark standards. However, brand owners must take positive steps to ensure that their trade marks remain protected under the new … Continue reading

China update: Good news (with a warning) for brand owners outsourcing the manufacturing of their products in China

By Georgina Hey (AU) on January 23, 2020 Posted in Trademark

Global trade is currently a clear focus between nations around the world, and we are seeing trade agreement negotiations effecting world economies in an increasingly direct fashion. As IP specialists, we are always alive to the legal developments that fall out of these negotiations, particularly how they impact domestic laws in relation to balancing the … Continue reading

Update for Australian businesses: China continues its trade mark law refresh

By Georgina Hey (AU) on December 18, 2019 Posted in Trademark

For many years China has made deliberate attempts to model itself as a strong intellectual property (IP) economy. The Chinese IP system continues to evolve, and, most recently, changes coming into effect on 1 November 2019 have been made to improve the strength of the Chinese trade mark system. The changes are aimed at bad … Continue reading

Authorised use or something fishy? – Implications for trade mark ‘use’ in Australia in the inter-company context

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Matt Allen (AU) on November 27, 2019 Posted in Trademark

Trade mark licensing arrangements can often offer significant benefits for trade mark owners by increasing brand exposure and royalty revenue streams. However, as we have previously reported, recent Australian cases (such as Lodestar Anstalt v Campari America LLC [2016] FCAFC 92 (Lodestar)) demonstrated that licensing arrangements may expose trade mark owners to the risk of … Continue reading

Review of sugar labelling a sweet victory for health advocates, and yet more packaging and labelling changes required for business in Australia?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Emily Hong on September 4, 2019 Posted in General

Shoppers reaching for a sweet, refreshing bottle of soft drink may soon find themselves confronted by the sour reality of 33 small icons of teaspoons – equivalent to the average sugar content of 1.25 litres of soft drink (see here). The Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (Forum) recently announced a review … Continue reading

The highs and lows of the 2019 Australian IP Report

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Benjamin Kende on July 15, 2019 Posted in Trademark

The highs and lows of the 2019 Australian IP Report To mark World Intellectual Property Day, IP Australia released its seventh edition of the Australian Intellectual Property Report 2019 (Report). The Report provides a snapshot of the Australian IP landscape in 2018 by consolidating data, highlighting trends and critically analysing its future. In this article, … Continue reading

Ghost of rulings past: why virtual designs are not yet covered by Australian IP law

By Isobel Taylor (AU) and Georgina Hey (AU) on July 15, 2019 Posted in General

Virtual or non-physical designs, which include graphical user interfaces and screen icons, are designs that impact the appearance of a product through software displayed on an electronic screen. Many of these designs have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Well-known and familiar virtual designs range from the Snapchat ghost app button on our phones to … Continue reading

Copyright vs Freedom of the Internet: Round 1 just passed the European Parliament

By Isobel Taylor (AU) and Georgina Hey (AU) on April 29, 2019 Posted in Copyright

At the end of last month, the European Union Parliament adopted a controversial new “Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market” (Directive). One of the stated aims of the Directive is to give copyright holders such as musicians, artists, performers and authors greater bargaining power against tech giants like Google, YouTube and Facebook in … Continue reading

No safe harbour: Online platforms face choppy waters when it comes to copyright infringement

By Isobel Taylor (AU) and Georgina Hey (AU) on April 23, 2019 Posted in Copyright

The liability of internet intermediaries for copyright infringement is a hot topic of conversation at the moment, both in Australia and overseas. Sweeping reforms have just been passed by the EU Parliament, and Australian copyright legislation in this area has been the subject of significant judicial consideration in recent years. In this article, we consider … Continue reading

Good to know: The US trademark office has a ‘proof of use’ audit program for trademark registrations

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Rebecca Brenikov (AU) on January 11, 2019 Posted in Trademark

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires trademark owners to support their trademark registrations by providing one specimen of use per class, at both 6 years and 10 years after the trademark registration date. So, for instance, if you have a registration covering ‘clothing, footwear and headgear’ in class 25, providing the US trademark … Continue reading

Are tougher days coming for approval of agribusiness certification trademarks in Australia?

By Georgina Hey (AU) and Amanda Caldwell (AU) on November 29, 2018 Posted in Advertising, Trademark

On 22 November 2018 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued its initial assessment of the rules governing use of four certification trade marks in the name of OxoPak Pty Ltd, indicating its intention deny approval for the certification rules, and therefore the trade marks will be denied.… Continue reading