AUSTRALIA / TRADEMARKS / SHAPE

How far a shape as such can be registered as a trademark is discussed in Intellectual Property Forum, Issue 40, March 2000, in an article entitled Shape as a Trade Mark, by Michael Arblaster, Assistant Registrar of Trade Marks in Australia. Many jurisdictions, notably the European Community Trade Mark system, make provision for the registration of shapes; but neither the background to the legislation nor the relevant case law throws much light on the detailed considerations bearing on the appropriateness of registering particular types of shape. The article refers to some of the objective criteria on which a decision to register must be based and illustrates the points made by reference to shapes varying from the Toblerone chocolate bar to a barbecue, the principal part of which resembles a kettle. The author points out that, of the 102,000 applications for registration of trademarks since the 1995 Act came into force, only 600 claim shape as a feature - less than 6% - and that, of some 488 applications for registration of a shape, only 109 were accepted. But, as the author adds, this is a higher propertion of registrations to applications than for colors, sounds and scents. [20016]