What is trademark renewal?
The 10-year renewal tracked and filed before the grace-period fees start.
An Australian trade mark registration runs on a 10-year clock from its filing date, and renewal is the one recurring date in the entire trade mark lifecycle that has nothing to do with how the business is trading — it comes due whether the mark is thriving, dormant, or barely used, and IP Australia does not re-examine anything at renewal. It checks that the fee has been paid and updates the register with a new 10-year expiry. That simplicity is exactly why renewals get missed: there is no BAS-style monthly rhythm forcing attention to it, and the reminder email IP Australia sends goes to whatever address was on file when the mark was registered, sometimes a decade earlier, to a person who has since left the business or an inbox nobody checks anymore.
The renewal window opens 12 months before the 10-year anniversary and the registration can be renewed any time in that window. Businesses that renew inside it pay one number: the flat per-class government fee, no surcharge. The window that actually causes damage is the one on the other side of the anniversary — IP Australia gives a 6-month grace period after expiry during which the mark can still be renewed, but every month or part-month overdue in that window adds a late fee on top of the normal renewal fee. Miss the grace period entirely and the registration lapses outright; getting the mark back onto the register at that point generally means refiling as a brand-new application, which loses the original priority date and puts the mark back through full examination and the opposition window, with no guarantee it registers again.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Trademark renewal, 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 renewal in Australia
The 6-month grace period is not a second free window — it adds a late fee for every month overdue
IP Australia allows renewal within 6 months after the 10-year anniversary passes, but a late fee applies per month or part month overdue on top of the standard renewal fee for that window. A mark renewed on day one of month three of the grace period already carries three months of late fees stacked on the base renewal fee — the grace period buys time, it does not buy the original price back.
Miss the grace period and the mark is gone, not just late
If renewal is not completed within the 6-month grace window, the registration lapses. Recovering trade mark protection at that point generally means filing a brand-new application from scratch, which loses the original priority date and sends the mark back through full examination and the standard 2-month opposition-window advertisement — with no guarantee the mark registers again, since a competitor may have filed something conflicting in the intervening years.
The fee is per class, not per mark — and IP Australia sends one reminder to one address
A mark registered across multiple classes attracts a separate renewal fee for each class, all due at the same 10-year anniversary. IP Australia's renewal reminder goes to whatever address was recorded when the mark was filed, which for a decade-old registration is frequently an outdated contact — the reminder existing is not the same as it reaching someone who will act on it.
Renewal is administrative, not a re-examination — nothing about the mark itself is reassessed
IP Australia performs no substantive review at renewal: no re-check against absolute or relative grounds, no fresh advertisement, no opposition window. The Registrar records the payment and extends the term for a further 10 years. This is why processing a renewal on a client's behalf, with authority to act, does not require registration on the Trans-Tasman Register of Trade Marks Attorneys — it is a tracked payment, not a legal filing.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A per-mark, per-class renewal calendar — every registered class's exact 10-year anniversary date and the 12-month window it opens.
- An advance flag, well inside the 12-month window, for each mark approaching its anniversary, so payment can be queued before any late fee becomes possible.
- The correct per-class government fee amount confirmed against IP Australia's current published schedule ahead of the payment date.
- A contact-details check against what IP Australia holds on file for each mark, flagged for update if the registered address is stale.
- For any mark that has already entered the grace period, the exact overdue month count and the resulting late-fee exposure, laid out before payment is made.
- A confirmation record once the register has been updated with the new 10-year expiry, filed against the renewal calendar for the next cycle.
