I came across a new firm today, which I will not name. This one is the address for service for 3,282 marks on the Australian trade marks database. A search for the firm name on the TTIPAB list of registered Australian attorney firms, retrieves zero results, indicating the firm employs no one qualified to practice as a trade marks attorney in Australia. Moreover, when you go to the firm website, it lists an address in Guangdong Province, China. So, it is not clear whether the firm has any nexus to Australia at all, except it has somehow obtained the right to list an address in NSW (or at least it does list an address in NSW, and whether or not it has a lease to that address or otherwise has a right to list it, is another matter).
As with all patent and trade marks offices around the world, IP Australia requires people acting as the address for service to have an address in Australia or New Zealand. This is intended to ensure that the people acting as the address for service are local attorneys, admitted before the TTIPAB (Trans Tasman Intellectual Property Attorneys Board), who are qualified to act. This is insufficiently policed however, and tens of thousands of marks on the Australian trade marks database are managed by people who have zero qualifications to do so, many of whom are not even located in Australia.
This is nothing new. So, it is not a particularly noteworthy topic for a blog post. But, what is interesting is that this firm I uncovered today has recently assisted in the filing of a number of Australian trade mark applications, each of which appear to be a bizarre jumble of letters, seemingly very unlikely for actual use as a trade mark, including *:
- PIVFH8F
- BZIULAE
- WTPIGTI
- TLBZIK
- YSGOYIS
- JCBCKJI
^ Each modified by 1 letter, for privacy of the applicants
The mind wanders. Are they trying to clog up the Australian trade marks database, as yet another attack on the Australian IP system? Are they secret messages, being exchanged between criminals, just like people used to communicate with inmates via codes in the classified ads? Or are they genuine trade mark applications?
Whatever it is, the Australian trade marks database is a minefield of intrigue. To scour it means to get a glimpse into all the new brands about to emerge into the marketplace, and simultaneously to get a glimpse into what is happening on the fringes…