INTEGRATED COMBAT CENTRE – in the name of Tong Martial Arts Pty Limited

This matter concerned an application by Tong Martial Arts Pty Limited, trading as INTEGRATED COMBAT CENTRE, to register a trade mark. The application was before the Hearing Officer, Nicholas Smith, following a request to be heard under section 33(4) of the *Trade Marks Act 1995* (Cth) in relation to a ground for rejection under section 41 of the Act.

The primary legal issue before the Hearing Officer was whether the trade mark "INTEGRATED COMBAT CENTRE" was inherently adapted to distinguish the designated services, or whether it had acquired distinctiveness through use, such that it could be registered under section 41 of the *Trade Marks Act 1995* (Cth). This involved assessing whether consumers in the relevant market recognised the mark as a badge of origin for the applicant's services, separate from its descriptive meaning.

The Hearing Officer found that the evidence of use supplied by the applicant was insufficient to establish that the Australian-wide market for the designated services had been educated to recognise the trade mark as connoting the applicant. While acknowledging that the mark was not one for which no amount of use could result in distinctiveness, the Hearing Officer was not satisfied that, at the filing date, consumers regarded the mark alone as a badge of origin separate from its descriptive nature. Consequently, the Hearing Officer concluded that the trade mark had not achieved distinctiveness as a matter of fact and rejected the application under section 41 of the Act.