How to Trademark Your Business Name in Australia

To trade mark your business name in Australia, you apply to IP Australia — from $250 per class for a standard online application, or $330 per class through the TM Headstart pre-assessment service — and, if nothing goes wrong, the mark is registered around seven months later (fees as at September 2026). Registering the name with ASIC doesn't do this for you: a business name is a label on a register, not something you own. Here's how the process actually works, what it costs, and how to decide whether it's worth it for your business.

One spelling note before we start: IP Australia and the legislation write it as two words, "trade mark". Searchers type "trademark". They mean the same thing.

Why a business name, ABN or company name gives you no ownership

This is the misunderstanding that costs people the most. Registering a business name with ASIC stops anyone else registering an identical or nearly identical business name. That's all. It gives you no exclusive right to the words, and ASIC doesn't check IP Australia's trade mark register before it approves your name. The two registers don't talk to each other.

So it's entirely possible to register "Coastline Plumbing" as a business name today, print vans and signage, and get a letter next year from a company that registered COASTLINE as a trade mark for plumbing services three years ago. They win. You rebrand, at your cost. The same applies to a company name registered with ASIC, to your ABN, and to a domain name — none of them are intellectual property.

The reverse is also true, which is why you should search the trade mark register before you commit to a name. Our guide to choosing a business name walks through all four checks (ASIC, trade marks, domain, social handles), and registering a business name with ASIC covers the $47 (one year) or $108 (three years) registration you'll still need — ASIC's own advice is to check for trade marked words before you register.

What a registered trade mark actually gives you

A registered trade mark gives you the exclusive right, Australia-wide, to use that mark for the goods and services it's registered for. Concretely, that means:

• The right to stop others using the same or a deceptively similar mark for similar goods or services, and to sue for infringement if they do
• The right to use the ® symbol, which is itself a deterrent
• A dated claim. Protection runs from your filing date, so a later applicant with a similar mark is blocked by yours
• An asset you own. A trade mark can be sold, licensed to a franchisee, or used as security. Buyers of businesses care about this a great deal

You can register words, logos, slogans, letters, numbers, shapes, colours, sounds and even scents. For a business name, the practical choice is between a word mark (the name in plain text, protecting the words however they're styled) and a logo mark (your specific design). If you can only afford one, the word mark is usually the more valuable, because it covers the name in any font or colour and doesn't go stale when you refresh your branding.

Step 1: Check the name can be registered — and that it's free

Not every name is registrable. IP Australia will refuse a mark that is:

• Descriptive of what you sell — "Ultra White" for paper, or "4x4" for vehicles. Other traders need to use those words too. This is the most common reason small business names fail
• A common surname or a geographic name, on its own — "Smith", "Adelaide Car Wash"
• Likely to deceive or confuse — including anything too similar to an existing mark for similar goods or services
• A protected word, such as "Bank", "Red Cross" or "Defence Force", or a national or intergovernmental symbol
• Scandalous or contrary to law

Invented words (think "Kogan") and arbitrary words with no link to the product ("Apple" for computers) are the easiest to register. Descriptive names can sometimes get through if you can prove years of use have made them distinctive, but don't build a launch plan around it.

Then search. IP Australia's free Australian Trade Mark Search and its simpler TM Checker tool let you search existing marks by word and class. Don't just search the exact name — search for similar spellings, the way it sounds, and the key word alone. If a live mark in your class looks like yours, change the name now, while it costs nothing.

Step 2: Choose your classes

Trade marks are registered against classes of goods and services — there are 45 of them, and you pay per class. IP Australia's picklist has more than 60,000 pre-approved descriptions sorted into those classes; choosing from it keeps the fee at $250 per class, while writing your own wording costs $400 per class and invites more questions from the examiner.

Some typical small-business examples:

Two rules of thumb. First, cover what you sell now and what you'll realistically sell within the next three years — a mark can be challenged for removal if it's not used for three years after registration, so registering ten speculative classes is money wasted and a mark you can't defend. Second, get the classes right at the start: adding a class to an application after filing costs more than including it upfront.

Step 3: TM Headstart or a standard application?

IP Australia gives you two ways in. Both end in the same registration; the difference is whether you get an examiner's opinion before you commit.

Headstart works like this: you pay $200 per class, an examiner reviews the mark and sends a report to your online inbox (IP Australia's target is 95% within five business days), and you then have five business days to pay the $130 conversion fee, amend, or abandon it. If the report says the name is descriptive or clashes with an existing mark, you've spent $200 instead of $250 and learned it before printing anything. Bear in mind the examiner can't tell you whether you'd infringe someone else's mark or guarantee success — it's an early read, not clearance.

The catch is the filing date. Under Headstart your priority date is the day you convert, so if you have any reason to think a competitor is about to file something similar, a standard application gets your date on the register today.

Step 4: Examination, acceptance and the opposition window

Here's the realistic timeline for a standard application with no drama:

If the examiner raises a problem — most often a similar earlier mark, or a name that's too descriptive — you get a report explaining why, and you have 15 months from that first report to fix it. Fixes range from narrowing your goods and services, to arguing the marks aren't really similar, to getting a letter of consent from the other owner. This is the point where paying a trade mark attorney for a few hours often pays for itself.

Once accepted, your mark is advertised for two months. Anyone can file a notice of intention to oppose ($250), followed by a statement of grounds and particulars a month later. If that happens you must file a notice of intention to defend within a month or your application lapses, and the matter proceeds through evidence and, if neither side backs down, a hearing. Oppositions are the exception, not the rule, for small-business names — and many settle by negotiation, often with the applicant agreeing to narrow their classes.

Until registration, use ™ if you like; it has no legal force but signals a claim. Don't use ® until the mark is actually registered — falsely representing a mark as registered is an offence under section 151 of the Trade Marks Act 1995.

Who should own the trade mark

The applicant must be the person or entity that owns and controls the brand: you personally if you're a sole trader, the company if you trade through one, or the trustee(s) if a trust runs the business. Getting this wrong can leave the registration open to challenge, so if you're about to move from sole trader to a company — see our guide to choosing a business structure — decide before you file, or plan to assign the mark to the new entity afterwards (a formal process, not automatic).

If you're growing, it's common to hold the trade mark in a separate holding entity and license it to the trading company, so the brand isn't exposed if the trading business fails. That's a conversation for your accountant and lawyer, not something to improvise.

Renewals and keeping the mark alive

Registration lasts ten years from the filing date and can be renewed indefinitely, ten years at a time. Renewal costs $400 per class online, and you can renew up to twelve months before the due date. Miss it and there's a six-month grace period, at an extra $100 for each month or part-month you're late; after that, the registration lapses and your rights go with it. Keep your contact details current in IP Australia's online services so the renewal reminder actually reaches you.

The other way to lose a mark is not using it. Anyone can apply ($350) to have a mark removed for non-use once three years have passed since registration (for marks filed on or after 24 February 2019). Register what you'll genuinely use, and keep evidence — dated invoices, ads, packaging — that you've used it.

Is it worth it for your business?

For plenty of small businesses, yes — but not all. It's a strong yes if:

• The name is distinctive and you're spending real money building it (signage, packaging, ads, a website)
• You sell beyond your suburb — online, interstate, or through resellers — where a look-alike is more likely and harder to police
• You plan to franchise, license or sell the business one day; a registered mark is a core asset in that sale
• A competitor could plausibly copy you, or you've already had a near-miss

It's a weaker case if you trade under your own name, serve a purely local market with a name nobody else would want, or your name is so descriptive it won't register anyway (in which case, consider a more distinctive name before you invest further).

Weigh the cost honestly: $250 to $660 for one or two classes, once a decade, against what a forced rebrand costs in signage, uniforms, domain, stationery, lost search rankings and customer confusion. Without a registration your fallback is a passing-off claim or an action under the Australian Consumer Law for misleading conduct — both possible, both expensive, and both require you to prove your reputation from scratch. Our guide to misleading advertising and the ACL explains what those rules do and don't cover.

Do you need a lawyer or trade mark attorney?

Not necessarily. A plain word mark, in one or two clear picklist classes, with a clean search result, is a job many owners do themselves in an hour via IP Australia's online services — and TM Headstart exists precisely to give DIY applicants an examiner's opinion before they commit.

Pay for a registered trade mark attorney or IP lawyer when: the search turns up something similar and you want a real opinion on the risk; you receive an adverse report; someone opposes you (or you need to oppose someone); you're registering a logo and a word mark and need to sequence them; or you're planning to sell overseas. For international protection, IP Australia can file a Madrid Protocol application on the back of your Australian one, covering many countries in a single application, but the country-by-country fees and strategy are attorney territory.

Key takeaways

• A business name, company name, ABN or domain gives you no ownership of a name. Only a registered trade mark does, and ASIC doesn't check the trade mark register when it approves your business name.
• Search IP Australia's register before you commit to a name — similar spellings and sounds, not just the exact words — and pick a distinctive name, because descriptive ones won't register.
• Costs from $250 per class (standard, picklist) or $330 per class via TM Headstart, which gives you an examiner's assessment within five business days before you're locked in (as at September 2026).
• Allow at least seven months: three to four months to examination, two months' opposition window after acceptance, then registration backdated to your filing date.
• Register the mark in the right owner's name (you, the company or the trustee) and only in classes you'll genuinely use — unused marks can be removed after three years.
• Renew every ten years at $400 per class, up to a year early; there's a six-month grace period at $100 a month, then the mark lapses.

Where to get help

• IP Australia — trade marks — how to apply, TM Headstart, and the current fees and timeframes
• Australian Trade Mark Search — free search of existing and pending marks
• ASIC — business names vs trade marks — why a business name isn't protection
• business.gov.au — business names, trading names and legal names
• A registered trade mark attorney or IP lawyer — for a clearance opinion, an adverse report, an opposition, or overseas filing. The Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board keeps the register of registered attorneys.
• Your accountant — on which entity should own the mark, especially if you're changing structure or planning to sell