Convention Priority

If you file a trade mark application overseas it may be possible to take advantage of the International (Paris) Convention and claim the Australian filing date in the foreign country as long as the application filed overseas is filed within six months of the lodgement of the application in Australia and that other country is a signatory to the Paris Convention.

Also a foreign application can retain the original filing date in Australia if filed within six months of the date of application in the foreign country. Therefore the Trade Marks Office here in Australia waits six months from the date of any Australian application before confirming that the application is order for acceptance. This allows foreign applications to be filed claiming convention priority.

Therefore if you have any interest in protecting your trade mark overseas then serious consideration should be given to protection overseas within six months of filing in Australia to take advantage of this window of priority.