When Pingers walked into the room (or more accurately, onto the Trade Marks Register), examiners at IP Australia immediately blushed. “Surely this is slang for MDMA, how scandalous!” But the Registrar wasn’t convinced. On 18 August 2025, the Delegate in Re Volstead Pty Ltd [2025] ATMO 164 decided that although Pingers for spirits was in bad taste, it was not scandalous under s 42(a) of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth). Australia’s scandal track record: Refusals and Acceptances

Australia and the European Union concluded negotiations on a historic free trade agreement on 24 March 2026, following eight years of extensive negotiations. One of the key obstacles to the signing of the Australian and European Union Free Trade Agreement (AEUFTA) was the European Union’s insistence that Australia provide geographical indication (GI) protection to the names of agricultural products and spirits that have been recognised domestically. The compromise position re

Patent term extensions (PTEs) in Australia sit at the centre of a long-running tension between innovation policy and statutory interpretation. Introduced to compensate pharmaceutical patentees for regulatory delay, the regime has increasingly been asked to do more than it was originally designed to achieve, particularly in relation to formulation and delivery system patents. The Full Federal Court’s decision in Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd v Sun Pharma ANZ Pty Ltd [2025] FCA