Introduce division of International Registrations Designating Australia

Issue summary

Changes to the Common Regulations under the Madrid Protocol came into force in February 2019, permitting the Australian trade marks office to present requests for division of International Registrations Designating Australia (IRDAs) to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. This is subject to the Australian trade marks legislation providing for the division of IRDAs, which it doesn't do now.   

History

• Consultation 30 August 2017 to 17 November 2017
• Policy development 20 November 2017 to 3 September 2018
• Legislative drafting 4 September 2018 to 6 December 2018
• Consultation on exposure draft regulations 11 January 2019 to 1 March 2019

Comments

Early in 2019, IP Australia sought public comment on the exposure draft of regulations to amend the Trade Marks Regulations 1995 to allow division of IRDAs. Noting that there is currently no international requirement to make this change now, IP Australia is not intending to seek the making of the amending regulations in the near future.

IP Australia proposes to conduct a holistic review of trade mark timeframe issues (including divisional timing) in the future when the implementation of the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission’s review of Australia’s IP arrangements is complete. We will consider the issue of division of IRDAs as part of that review.

We will continue to keep stakeholders informed on any activities concerning the division of IRDAs. Details of previous consultation are available on the consultation page.