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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (9 August) . . Page.. 2998 ..
(2) An applicant seeking to register a business name is required to do so in a form approved by the Registrar-General. The approved form for this purpose is a "Particulars of Business Name" form. The heading on that form includes a bold statement "see instructions overleaf ". The reverse side of the form contains a Warning in bold font as follows -
"In determining whether a name is available for registration, a search is not made of trade marks registered under the Trade marks Act 1995 (C'wlth). No responsibility is accepted for registration of a name, which might infringe proprietary rights acquired by registration of a trade mark. Inquiries should be directed to IP Australia."
The Registrar-General's Office has also published the "Particulars of Business Name" form on its website together with a Business Names Manual which clearly sets out requirements in relation to registration of a business name.(3) The Registrar-General does not believe that registration of the subject name constitutes a flawed registration. Registered business names may be cancelled where the registration was made through inadvertence or otherwise. In this case the Registrar-General is not of the view that the registration was made through inadvertence or otherwise. Using the NNI's search engine, the exact word check did not reveal an already registered similar or identical name. A subsequent check reveals that a number of other Australian businesses have been registered including the word "Aveda". In this case, the name was not identical as the spelling is "Aveeda".
The Registrar-General's Office does not have access to details of incorporated companies or business names registered in other jurisdictions other than what is on the NNI.
Advice previously provided by the ACT Government Solicitor suggests that, in broad terms, the registered proprietor of a name has no recourse to recover costs against the Registrar-General in such circumstances.
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