A lot of traders “cash in” at Christmas time by labelling their products with Christmas-related words or Christmas-themed logos. Most do this without giving any thought whether they might be infringing someone else’s trade mark by doing so.
But perhaps this is something that should be considered before releasing products with Christmas branding, not least because there are a surprising number of Christmas related trade marks registered in Australia, and the owners of those trade mark registration have exclusive rights in relation to those trade marks. The following are just a few examples:
- C. S. Lewis (Pte) Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 987817 “FATHER CHRISTMAS” for electronic and scientific products;
- Kmart Australia Limited owns Australian Trade Mark 1027569 “SANTA’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND” for a wide range of products including candles, lights, gift wrap and gift boxes, tableware, ornaments, clothing, Santa suits, and a range of other Christmas decorations;
- Home Ice Cream Pty Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 1063577 “WHITE CHRISTMAS” for ice creams and frozen desert products;
- Cotton On Kids Pty Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 1154333 “I © SANTA” for clothing;
- Mars Australia Pty Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 1195554 “SECRET SANTA” for a wide range of food products;
- Liquor Stax Australia Pty Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 1494366 “SECRET SANTA” for wine;
- Mr. Christmas, Inc. owns Australian Trade Mark 722554 “MR. CHRISTMAS” for Christmas ornaments and decorations; and
- Reseau International Trading Pty Ltd owns Australian Trade Mark 1085075 “Christmasmania” for Confectionery products.
Now some of these may be difficult to enforce due to their wide use descriptively before and after the registrations were filed but, the take-home message is that the same cautions and considerations should be applied to Christmas branding as to any other product branding at other times of the year.