How long trade marks last in Australia and the renewal cycle explained

Australian business owners frequently ask how long a registered trade mark lasts. The answer is unusual in intellectual property law: a trade mark can last as long as your business does, but only while two things keep happening. You have to renew the registration on time, every ten years, and you have to keep using the mark for the goods and services it protects. Miss either obligation and the registration can lapse or be removed, and the rights you paid to build disappear.

This article walks through how the system actually operates: the ten-year term, the renewal window, the six-month grace period, the point at which a mark is removed from the Register, and the separate non-use rules that can end protection even while you are keeping up with dates.

Who does what in the renewal system

Three groups interact with the trade mark system over the life of a registration:

• Registered owner: the business or person who owns the mark and holds the exclusive right to use it in Australia for the registered goods and services. The owner carries the responsibility for renewing on time and for using the mark in a way the Act recognises.
• IP Australia: the federal agency that administers the Trade Marks Register. Its Registrar examines applications, records registrations, sends renewal reminders, accepts renewal payments, and removes marks that are not renewed.
• Competitors and other third parties: anyone who wants the mark for themselves, or who objects to it staying on the Register. A third party can apply to have a mark removed for non-use, or oppose a fresh application once an old registration has lapsed.

Behind all of this sit the courts. Disputes over removal and infringement start with the Registrar or the courts depending on the issue, and appeals from Registrar decisions go to the federal courts.

The ten-year term starts at filing

Under s 72 of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) (the Act), registration is taken to have had effect from the filing date of the application, and s 80B confirms that the registration expires ten years after that filing date. The practical point is that your anniversary is anchored to the day you filed, not the day the mark was registered or the certificate issued. A mark filed on 1 March 2020 but registered in early 2021 still expires on 1 March 2030.

Each renewal under s 77 extends the registration for another ten years from the day it would otherwise have expired. IP Australia's renewal guidance is explicit that there is no limit on the number of times a trade mark can be renewed. That is what makes trade marks different from standard patents, which run for around 20 years, and registered designs, which can be protected for a maximum of 10 years. As long as renewals keep coming and the mark keeps being used, the registration can roll forward indefinitely.

During those ten-year blocks, registration gives the owner the exclusive right to use the mark in Australia for the registered goods and services, the right to authorise others to use it, and the right to put the ® symbol next to it. Those rights are what make a trade mark enforceable against copycats and valuable in licensing deals and business sales.

The renewal window opens twelve months out

The renewal window opens twelve months before the expiry date. Section 75 allows any person to ask the Registrar to renew the registration within the prescribed period, and IP Australia's practical guidance is that a mark can be renewed up to a year before it falls due. IP Australia sends the registered owner a reminder notice two months before the renewal is due, but the reminder is a courtesy, not a safety net: the Act puts the obligation on the owner, and a missed notice does not excuse a missed deadline.

Renewal is paid per class. Under the current fee schedule a renewal costs $400 per class through IP Australia's online services, or $450 by other payment methods. A mark registered across three classes therefore costs $1,200 to renew online. A renewal under s 77 runs for ten years from the date the registration would otherwise have expired, so paying early or late within the window does not shift your next anniversary. The ten-year cycle stays anchored to the original filing date, which makes the dates easy to predict and easy to calendar.

The six-month grace period and what it costs

If the renewal fee is not paid by the expiry date, the registration does not end immediately. Section 79 creates a six-month late renewal period: within six months after the registration expires, the Registrar must still renew it, running for ten years from the day it expired. The price is a surcharge. IP Australia charges an additional $100 for each month, or part of a month, that the fee remains unpaid. A renewal paid two weeks late costs an extra $100; one paid in the fifth month costs $500 on top of the renewal fee.

The important detail is that a late renewal still takes effect from the expiry date, not from the day you pay. In effect, the grace period is a pause during which your registration is technically expired but can be revived without losing continuity. The same is not true once the grace period ends.

Removal from the Register: the point of no return

Section 78 states the consequence of doing nothing. If the registration is not renewed before expiry and is not renewed within the six-month grace period, the registration ceases to have effect when it expires, and the Registrar must remove the trade mark from the Register six months after the expiry date.

Removal is the end of the road under the current Act. There is no general restoration mechanism in the Trade Marks Act 1995 that lets an owner revive a mark removed for non-renewal; the restoration provisions that exist relate to specific non-use scenarios and transitional cases, not to lapsed renewals. IP Australia has flagged restoration of lapsed marks as a policy question from time to time, but no such mechanism exists in the law as it stands. The consequences are serious:

• Loss of exclusive rights: the rights conferred by registration are gone, along with the ability to sue for infringement and to use the ® symbol.
• Open season for competitors: the name, logo or slogan is immediately available for someone else to file, and a competitor who files first takes the priority date that used to be yours.
• A fresh application is the only way back: re-filing means going through examination and opposition again, and if it succeeds the new registration dates from the new filing date, not your original one.
• Unregistered rights are a weaker fallback: common law protection through passing off and the Australian Consumer Law (Cth) still exists, but it is harder and more expensive to enforce than a registration.

In practice, a mark that lapses and is then re-filed can lose years of priority, and the owner can spend months in examination and opposition trying to recover a position they already held. The six-month grace period is the last controlled opportunity to keep the registration alive. After removal, the process is no longer in the owner's hands.

The other way protection ends: non-use removal

Renewal is only half the story. The other way a registration can end is removal for non-use, and it can happen while the owner is renewing on time every ten years.

Part 9 of the Act lets a third party apply to have a mark removed. Section 92(4)(b) sets out the main ground: the mark must have remained registered for a continuous period of three years ending one month before the removal application is filed, and at no time during that period was the mark used, or used in good faith, by the registered owner in Australia in relation to the goods or services covered by the application. In plain terms, once a mark has been on the Register for three years, a competitor can apply to remove it if the owner has not genuinely used it during that whole period. Section 92(4)(a) adds a second ground: that the applicant for registration never had a good faith intention to use the mark in Australia at all.

The burden then falls on the owner. Section 100 makes it the owner's job to rebut a non-use allegation, and the owner can do so by showing:

• Good-faith use: the mark was used in good faith during the three-year period, including use with additions or alterations that do not substantially affect its identity.
• Obstacles: the mark was not used because of circumstances, affecting traders generally or just the owner, that were an obstacle to use during the period.
• Authorised use: use of the mark by a licensee or other authorised person counts as use by the registered owner.

Removal can also be partial. An application under s 92 can target only some of the goods or services, so a mark that is used for one product line but not another can be cut back to the classes that are actually being worked. Where non-use is established only in a particular place or export market, conditions or limitations can be imposed on the registration instead of removing it altogether.

One transitional wrinkle is worth knowing about. Different dates apply to marks filed before 24 February 2019, when the non-use rules changed, so the exact window in which a removal application can be made depends on when your mark was filed. A trade mark lawyer can map the relevant dates for a specific mark.

The practical lesson for owners is to treat the registration as an asset that has to be worked, not parked. Evidence of genuine use is what defeats a non-use application, and it is far easier to gather year by year than to reconstruct after a removal application lands.

The traps that quietly end protection

Renewal and use are the two big obligations, but several smaller mistakes undermine a registration between renewals:

• Classes narrow the protection: a registration only covers the goods and services in the classes you filed for. A café that registers only class 43 for restaurant services is not protected for the packaged coffee it now sells online in class 30. Expanding into new products or services usually means new applications, not a broader reading of the old registration.
• Word marks and logo marks are separate registrations: a word mark protects the name in plain text; the logo is a different mark with its own registration and its own renewal date. Renewing one does nothing for the other.
• Ownership needs to follow the business: if the entity operating the business changes, through a restructure, a sale or a founder leaving, the trade mark needs to be assigned to the new owner and the assignment recorded. Renewal reminders go to the registered owner, and an owner that no longer exists is an easy way to miss a deadline.
• Evidence of use should be kept as you go: screenshots of listings, invoices, packaging, marketing materials and social posts all document genuine use. They matter for non-use challenges and for proving the brand's history in an opposition.

Where a trade mark lawyer earns their keep

A trade mark lawyer is usually brought in at one of three points: before filing, when a renewal is missed, or when a removal application or infringement issue appears.

• Before filing: a lawyer can check whether the mark is registrable, choose the right classes, and set up ownership in the right entity, which avoids the most common structural problems before they start.
• Around renewal: a lawyer can audit a portfolio of marks and classes, maintain a renewals calendar, and advise quickly if a deadline is missed, including whether late renewal or a fresh application is the cheaper path in the circumstances.
• When a non-use application or opposition lands: a lawyer can assess the strength of your evidence, prepare the response and defend the registration, or advise on negotiating a settlement that preserves part of the brand.

For most businesses the cost of advice is small against the value of the brand. A missed renewal is recoverable for six months at a known price. A removed mark is not recoverable at all.

The filing date is the anchor

Everything in this system hangs off one date: the filing date. It fixes the expiry date, the opening of the renewal window, the start of the grace period, and the dates that govern non-use removal. Put the filing date and the classes you registered somewhere you will see them, set a reminder eleven months out, and treat IP Australia's two-month reminder as a backup rather than a plan.

The most expensive mistake is not missing a renewal by a month. It is assuming a lapsed mark can be revived, because under the current law it cannot. Once the six-month grace period closes, the registration is removed and the protection is gone; the realistic options are a fresh application with a new filing date, or unregistered rights that are harder and more expensive to enforce. If a renewal deadline is approaching and anything about your registration is uncertain, get advice before the grace period ends, because that is the last point at which the outcome is still in your hands.