Institute for Inner Studies, Inc

The applicant, Institute for Inner Studies, Inc, sought to register the trade marks "Pranic Healing" and "Pranic Energy Healing" for services including meditation, education, and training. The Hearing Officer, Heath Wilson, was required to determine whether these trade marks were capable of distinguishing the applicant's services from those of other persons, as provided for under the *Trade Marks Act 1995* (Cth).

The central legal issue was whether the trade marks "Pranic Healing" and "Pranic Energy Healing" possessed the inherent capacity to distinguish the applicant's services, or if they had acquired distinctiveness through use, pursuant to section 41(6) of the Act. The Hearing Officer considered whether the evidence demonstrated that these terms were recognised as denoting the applicant's origin rather than merely describing the type of healing services offered.

The Hearing Officer found that the trade marks lacked inherent distinctiveness. While the applicant had used the terms since 1996, the evidence of use for "Pranic Energy Healing" was minimal. For "Pranic Healing," the evidence, including course certificates, clinic advertisements, brochures, and websites, often used the terms descriptively. Although advertising expenditure and sales revenue had increased, the Hearing Officer noted that a significant portion of the sales and some advertising materials were international and that the descriptive use of the terms weakened the claim of distinctiveness. Consequently, the Hearing Officer was not satisfied that the applicant had established that the trade marks distinguished their services under section 41(6)(a).

As the applicant failed to establish that the trade marks distinguished their services, the Hearing Officer applied section 41(6)(b) of the Act. Accordingly, both trade mark applications, numbers 1287221 and 1287224, were rejected.