What is trademark search & filing (tm headstart)?
IP Australia’s Headstart pre-assessment used properly — search, classes and application prepared; filing itself is open to any agent in Australia.
A trade mark is the one piece of Australian IP most business owners assume is already handled by registering a company name or an ABN — it isn't. ASIC checks a business name against other business names, not against the Trade Marks Register, so a name can be perfectly registrable as a business and still infringe someone else's registered mark the day trading starts. IP Australia — the federal IP office inside the Department of Industry — runs the actual trade mark system, and registering there is the only step that gives exclusive rights to a name, logo or slogan in connection with specific goods or services.
There are two ways in through IP Australia, and the choice matters before a single dollar is spent. A standard application goes straight to examination: file, pay, and find out weeks later whether an examiner has a problem with it. TM Headstart splits that into two paid steps — Part 1 is a preliminary, non-binding assessment (a real examiner looks at the mark and the classes and gives a written view) before the applicant commits to a full application; Part 2 formalises that into an actual filing with a filing date, only if the client chooses to proceed. Headstart exists specifically so a business doesn't pay full filing costs to discover a fatal conflict it could have learned about earlier.
Who does what
Trademark filing is unregulated in Australia — CapEasy prepares and files as your agent; contested matters and infringement advice go to an Australian TM attorney or lawyer.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Trademark search & filing (TM Headstart), 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. |
Trademark search & filing (TM Headstart) in Australia
Filing a trade mark application is open to any agent — there is no registered-agent gate on the filing step itself
Unlike patents, Australia does not require a registered trade marks attorney to lodge a trade mark application; anyone can file as a lay filer or paid agent. The gate that does exist is narrower and title-based: only a person on the official Register of Trade Marks Attorneys (administered by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board) may call themselves a "trade marks attorney" or "trade mark agent," or hold out as one. We prepare and file as your paid agent, and keep our role squarely at that agent level — searches, drafting and lodgement — outside Australian legal advice on trade mark law.
Registration takes at least seven months by IP Australia's own stated floor — never a firm date
IP Australia's published minimum is "at least 7 months and a minimum cost of $250" for a straightforward application with no objections and no opposition. That floor is built into the process itself — a two-month statutory advertisement/opposition window sits inside every successful application, on top of the initial examination wait — so seven months is the best case, not a typical estimate. We track it against your file, not against a promise.
TM Headstart is a two-part product, and Part 1 is a genuine walk-away point
Part 1 ($200 per class) buys a preliminary, non-binding assessment from a real IP Australia examiner before you commit to a full filing. If the preliminary view is unfavourable, the process stops there and the only money spent is the Part 1 fee. If it is favourable and you proceed, Part 2 tops the total spend up to $330 per class to formalise into a real application with a filing date — it is not a second $330 charge on top of Part 1. Standard filing skips the preview and goes straight to examination at $250/class (official picklist) or $400/class (own description).
Expedited examination is available on request and costs nothing extra
A business with a genuine commercial reason to move faster — an active infringer, an imminent product launch — can request expedited examination by lodging a statutory declaration explaining the commercial disadvantage of the standard queue. There is no additional government fee for the request itself, and a granted request compresses the wait for a first examination outcome to roughly four to eight weeks instead of the standard queue. We prepare the declaration; whether the reason given is accepted is IP Australia's call.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A clearance search report — results from the free IP Australia TM Checker / Australian Trade Mark Search, plus ASIC business-name and domain conflict checks, assessed for filing risk.
- A goods/services classification recommendation, drafted against the official IP Australia picklist wherever the description fits (to hold the $250/class rate instead of the $400/class own-description rate).
- A route recommendation — standard application or TM Headstart Part 1 — with the cost and timing trade-off of each laid out plainly.
- For TM Headstart: the Part 1 preliminary assessment report from IP Australia, translated into plain language, with a clear go/walk-away recommendation before Part 2 is paid.
- The completed application package lodged via IP Australia eServices as your paid agent, with the client's own eServices account retaining ownership.
- The filing receipt and application number, followed by the electronic registration confirmation when the mark proceeds to registration.
