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The Port of Brisbane has failed in its attempt to protect its trademark for the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, despite it featuring prominently atop the $158 million facility for more than three years.
The terminal has been using the corporate branding since it welcomed its first ship, P&O’s Pacific Explorer, in June 2022.
Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd applied to protect its branding the following year, but last week IP Australia knocked back its application to protect two variations of its corporate logo for a third time.
The Brisbane International Cruise Terminal at Pinkenba. Pic supplied by the Port of Brisbane.Credit: Port of Brisbane
In a letter to Melbourne-based Allens Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys, representing the Port of Brisbane in the matter, IP Australia trademark assessor Anita Hodge said there was “insufficient grounds for acceptance” of the trademarks.
“While I acknowledge that the applicant has significantly invested in the construction of the terminal and that the subject mark has been in use since 2020 and in respect of the claimed services since 2022, the exhibits provided are somewhat limited and do not clearly establish that the average Australian consumer is familiar with the subject mark,” she said.
University of Queensland trademark expert Professor John Swinson, an arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva, said the setback would not have any bearing on the terminal’s operation.
The variations of the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal logo the Port of Brisbane is trying to protect.Credit: IP Australia
“You don’t need to register a trademark – it’s not like if you don’t have a registered trademark, you can’t trade,” he said.
“I could set up a business and call it Jack’s Fruit Store and you don’t need a trademark registration. You just need a business name registration, which is a different thing.
“Without a registered trademark, it just means it’s harder for them to protect against infringers.”
A Port of Brisbane spokesman said “constructive discussions” with IP Australia were continuing in the hopes of having the matter resolved.
“We do not foresee any change to the branding of the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal or the use of these marks,” he said.
“We look forward to the registration of these two additional trademarks in due course.”
But Swinson said the bigger question was why the state government did not seek to protect its asset, given it would eventually revert to public hands.
“When the lease runs out, Port of Brisbane still owns the trademark – the brand is theirs and the lease is only over the land, and the land goes back to the state, but not the trademark,” he said.
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“A new operator could come in and cannot use ‘Brisbane International Cruise Terminal’ unless they buy it off the out-going operator – that’s what I think their play is, to try to entrench their position.”
Comment was sought from the Queensland government, but the Port of Brisbane spokesman said trademarks would revert to the state at the end of the lease.
If that were to ever become an issue, it was statistically likely that anyone currently within the state government and Port of Brisbane would be long dead.
Then-Labor treasurer Andrew Fraser announced the 99-year lease in November 2010, keeping it in private hands until at least 2109.
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