What is opposition & non-use removal support?
IP Australia oppositions and non-use removals — the evidence file built; the contested argument is the attorney’s.
Two different fights land in this leaf. In an opposition, someone else thinks your accepted trade mark application shouldn't proceed to registration — usually because they hold a conflicting earlier mark — and they've filed a Notice of Intention to Oppose inside the 2-month window after your mark was advertised in the Official Journal of Trade Marks. In a non-use removal, someone is trying to strip a registered mark off the register under section 92 of the Trade Marks Act 1995, on the grounds that it either was never genuinely intended to be used or hasn't seen genuine use for a continuous 3-year period — and that mark might be yours, in which case you're the one defending it, or it might be a competitor's, sitting in the way of your own filing, in which case removing it clears your path.
Both proceedings are decided by an IP Australia Hearing Officer, a delegate of the Registrar, not a court — but the process still runs on statutory deadlines, evidence exchanged in rounds, and legal grounds that have to be argued, not just asserted. Missing a filing window in either proceeding has a real cost: an opposition left undefended lets the opposed application through or fails outright depending on which side sat quiet; a non-use removal left unopposed strips the mark from the register with no further hearing needed.
Who does what
Contested proceedings go to an Australian trade marks attorney or lawyer; CapEasy prepares the use-evidence file and timeline.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Opposition & non-use removal support, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Opposition & non-use removal support in Australia
Opposition has a hard 2-month window from advertisement, then a 1-month window for the grounds
A Notice of Intention to Oppose must be filed within 2 months of your mark being advertised as accepted in the Official Journal of Trade Marks — miss it and the mark proceeds to registration with no further chance to oppose that acceptance. The notice costs a minimum $250 to file (Trade Marks Regulations 1995, Schedule 9) and isn't processed until the fee clears. Once filed, the opponent has a further 1 month to lodge a Statement of Grounds and Particulars setting out the legal grounds — prior conflicting mark, bad faith, no genuine intention to use — and the factual particulars behind them. Both deadlines run on calendar days, not business days, and neither is the kind of thing a reminder email should be the only backstop for.
Non-use removal costs $350 per class to bring, and nothing to defend
Filing a s.92 non-use removal application costs $350 per class (raised from $250 in the 1 Oct 2024 IP Australia fee review) on the ground that a mark either had no genuine intention of use at filing or has seen no genuine use for a continuous 3-year period. If you're defending your own mark against a non-use removal filed by someone else, opposing that removal costs nothing to lodge — but once you've opposed, the onus shifts to you to produce evidence of use, or of circumstances that genuinely prevented use, and that evidence has to survive scrutiny.
Evidence rounds run support, answer, reply — each with its own statutory window
Once an opposition or a contested non-use removal is past the notice stage, evidence is exchanged in three rounds: evidence-in-support from the party bringing the claim, evidence-in-answer from the party defending, evidence-in-reply closing the loop. Each round runs on a prescribed period, commonly 2–3 months and extendable, and a party that files nothing in its window forfeits that round — there's no informal catch-up later. A full opposition contested through all three rounds and a hearing commonly runs 12–18 months or longer end to end; a non-use removal follows a comparable structure once opposed.
A hearing has its own fee, and IP Australia charges by format
Either party can request a hearing once the evidence rounds close. Written-submissions hearings cost $500; an oral hearing — remote by videoconference or phone in almost every case, in-person only by exception — costs $700 per day or part-day. For written submissions, the Registrar sets a filing window of at least 10 business days; for an oral opposition hearing, the opposing party files a submission summary at least 10 business days out and the other side responds at least 5 business days before the hearing date. The Hearing Officer, a delegate of the Registrar, issues a written decision with reasons, and either side can appeal that decision to the Federal Court of Australia — a genuine court appeal, outside IP Australia's own jurisdiction.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A deadline calendar for the specific matter — Notice of Intention to Oppose date, Statement of Grounds and Particulars date, each evidence-round window, hearing submission dates — tracked against the statutory triggers, not just IP Australia's reminder emails.
- A use-evidence file organised by goods/service class: dated invoices, purchase orders, shipping and delivery records, retail or marketplace listings with capture dates, dated marketing material, packaging photographs with provenance, and any licensing records showing use by an authorised third party.
- A chronology of the mark's use — first use date, continuity across the 3-year period at issue, any gaps and the reason for them — cross-referenced to the evidence that supports each entry.
- A prior-mark and conflict summary where the matter is an opposition — the cited earlier mark, the classes and goods/services in conflict, and the client's own filing and use history against it.
- A formatted, indexed exhibit bundle ready for the attorney to attach to a declaration or affidavit, rather than a folder of unlabelled files.
- A running status note on every fee paid, every notice filed, and every window still open, handed over before each statutory deadline — not discovered at it.
