IP Australia’s Smart Trade Mark Initiative for Combatting Counterfeiters

IP Australia's has been trialling an Australian Government anti-counterfeiting initiative that allows consumers or other interested parties to check whether a website sells genuine branded products.

Counterfeiting is a recognised problem worldwide which not only negatively affects brand owners sales of their goods and their reputation in the marketplace, it also usually results in the purchasers of the counterfeit goods receiving inferior quality goods that are less durable and possibly even dangerous to use.

Under the “Smart Trade Mark” initiative owners of registered Australian trade marks provide details of websites through which their genuine goods are sold – which can be their own website and/or that of official re-sellers – and the relevant trade mark registrations. IP Australia stores those details and uses blockchain technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) to authenticate the trade mark by linking the details provided by the trade mark owner to the Australian Trade Marks Register. This then allows a Trust Badge or even numerous Trust Badges to be displayed on the relevant websites, which each link back to the relevant record on the Australian Trade Mark Register and provides details about the Smart Trade Mark program.

This initiative will eventually be opened up to all owners of registered Australian trade marks. It is not yet known whether IP Australia will charge for this service. However, IP Australia have indicated that they will release the Smart Trade Mark API to their platform, enabling users to integrate it directly with their business systems, so at least the DIY option will be free.

Author: Quinn Miller

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