Communicare Inc v Communicare Sydney

Communicare Inc (the applicant) sought to register the trade mark "Communicare" in respect of various goods and services. Communicare Sydney (the opponent) opposed this application. The decision was made by Iain Thompson.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the applicant's trade mark application should be registered, having regard to the grounds of opposition raised by the opponent. This required the court to consider the provisions of section 55 of the relevant Act, which outlines the Registrar's obligations when deciding on a trade mark application following opposition.

The court determined that the application should be refused. Section 55 of the Act mandates that the Registrar must decide to refuse or register a trade mark based on the extent to which any ground of opposition has been established. In this instance, the court found that the grounds of opposition were sufficiently established to warrant refusal of the application.

The court ordered that the trade mark application be refused. Furthermore, the opponent was awarded its costs at the official scale, to be paid by the applicant.