Trademark Search Australia: What to Check Before You Commit to a Name
By IP Team
Zip Co is one of Australia's biggest buy now pay later companies. In May 2026, the High Court of Australia ruled against it, and Zip Co had to stop using the name Zip in Australia.
The reason was simple. A Brisbane home loan lender called Firstmac had already registered the name Zip in 2004. Zip Co started using the same word in 2013, nine years later.
Zip Co kept the name in the end, but only by buying it from Firstmac.
Here is the part that matters to you. Firstmac's registration had been sitting on the public register the whole time. Anyone could have found it in a few minutes. If you are choosing a business name, a product name or a logo right now, those few minutes are the step you are standing on.
The case is Zip Co Limited v Firstmac Limited [2026] HCA 16, decided on 13 May 2026.
Search your name free
What is a trademark search in Australia?
A trademark search checks the Australian trade marks register for names and logos that are already registered, or already applied for, in the categories of goods and services that matter to your business. It tells you whether someone else already holds rights to a name close to yours, before you print signage, buy a domain or launch.
It is a different question from "is this business name available at ASIC" and a different question again from "is the domain free". A name can be clear on both of those and still belong to someone else.
Zip Co v Firstmac: what the High Court actually decided
Zip Co argued it had used the name honestly and independently, without meaning to trade off anyone else. That argument is called honest concurrent use, and it can work.
It did not work here. The High Court unanimously dismissed Zip Co's appeal, partly because Zip Co already knew about Firstmac's registration when it adopted the branding in 2013. The order gave Zip Co until 10 June 2026 to stop using the name in Australia.
Two things are worth taking from it.
The problem showed up late. The dispute ran for more than a decade. Nobody raised it when the name was chosen. It surfaced years later, once the brand had become worth defending. By then Zip Co had built a national business on the name.
The information was always available. Firstmac's registration was public from 2004. Searching at the start would have shown it, and the whole thing could have been a different name chosen in an afternoon.
That is the case for searching early. Not because something terrible is likely to happen to you. Because checking costs you almost nothing now, and the cost of finding out later only goes up.
What does a trade mark search actually tell you?
Most of what you need is in the search itself. Here is where each answer comes from.
Is this exact name already registered?
The search, straight away.
Is it registered in my categories of goods and services?
The search, once you choose your classes.
Is something similar already registered?
The search, when you look widely enough.
Is someone using the name without registering it?
Not on the register. Registering is what puts your claim on record.
Is my name distinctive enough to register?
Our eligibility report, prepared by our legal team.
Two of those are worth a note.
Unregistered users. The register shows what has been registered or applied for. A business trading under a similar name without registering will not appear there. Registering is what puts your claim on the public record, which is why many businesses apply as soon as they settle on a name rather than leaving it. If you already know of someone trading under something close, mention it in the chat before you file and we can talk it through.
Distinctiveness. Whether a name is distinctive enough to register is a judgement call rather than a lookup. It is what our eligibility report is for: our legal team reviews your name and sets out the specific obstacles it is likely to face, so you know before you apply rather than after.
Want a second read on your result? There is a live chat bubble in the bottom right corner of this page. During office hours you will reach a real person who does this every day. Outside office hours, leave us a message and we will get back to you.
How do you check if a name is trademarked?
1. Write down every version of the name. Not just your spelling. Include plurals, sound alikes, common misspellings and the name without a word attached. Australian law protects registered owners against marks that are deceptively similar, not only against exact copies. So your trademark name check needs to be wider than the name on your card.
2. Work out what you actually sell. Trade mark rights are granted in classes, which are categories of goods and services. There are 45 of them, and your protection only covers the ones you register. A name can be perfectly free in your class and taken in someone else's. Our guide to choosing a class walks through this.
3. Run the search. You can check trademark availability on Trademarkability at any time, free, without creating an account.
4. Look past the exact matches. If a result is close but not identical, do not dismiss it. That is exactly the situation the Zip case turned on.
5. Check ASIC and the domain separately. Those are three different systems answering three different questions. Registering a business name with ASIC does not give you ownership of it.
How do you check trademark availability for a logo?
A logo is searched differently from a word, because two logos can look alike without sharing a single letter.
If your logo contains words, start by searching those words as a name. That catches the most common conflicts. Then consider the visual elements on their own: a shape, an animal, a symbol or a distinctive layout can each be registered in their own right.
If your brand relies on both, the usual approach is to protect the name first, since the name is what customers say out loud and type into a search box, then look at the logo separately. Logos also change. Names tend not to.
You can upload a logo on Trademarkability and search it alongside the name.
What if the name is registered in a different class?
This comes up constantly and the answer is genuinely "it depends".
Because rights are granted class by class, the same word can be registered by different owners in unrelated categories. That is why one word can belong to a bakery and a software company at the same time.
It stops being straightforward when the classes are neighbours, or when the existing owner is well known. A registration in a nearby class can still block your application, and a famous brand may be able to act well outside the classes it registered.
So a result in another class is not automatically a green light and not automatically a wall. It is the single most common reason a self filed application gets an unexpected objection.
What if your search turns up something close?
Most searches land in one of three places.
Clear. Nothing similar in your classes. You can move ahead and apply.
Taken. An identical or near identical mark already sits in your classes. Better to find that now, while a rethink is the only thing it costs you.
Grey. Something is close, but not the same, or it sits in a neighbouring class, or it is registered but looks unused. This is the most common result of the three, and it is the one worth a conversation.
Grey is the result we handle most often, and it is where the add on services earn their keep. An eligibility report has our legal team review your name and set out the specific obstacles it is likely to face. Every application also includes a 15 minute consultation, so once you are a client you have someone to walk the result through with. Where a matter needs formal legal advice, we refer you straight to our parent firm rather than leaving you to find someone yourself.
That is the difference between looking something up and knowing what to do next.
Start an application
What happens after you apply?
Filing is the start of the process, not the end of it.
Your application is examined against the register and against the rules on distinctiveness. If the examiner raises an objection, you get the chance to respond. If it is accepted, the acceptance is advertised publicly, and anyone who believes your mark conflicts with theirs has two months to oppose it. If nobody does, it proceeds to registration.
How long the whole thing takes depends on examination response times and whether any objection or opposition arises along the way. A clean application moves steadily. One with an objection can sit for months while it is argued.
This is the part where a good search at the beginning pays for itself, because most objections trace back to something that was visible on the register before the application was ever filed.
How much does it cost to register a trademark in Australia?
There are two parts to the cost. Our service fee, and a government charge that applies to every class you register.
Our service fee is $350 excluding GST for the first class, and $275 excluding GST for each additional class. The government charge is $250 per class.
Here is what that adds up to.
One class, $635 in total
Our service fee $350, plus $35 GST, plus the $250 government charge.
Two classes, $1,187.50 in total
Our service fee $625, plus $62.50 GST, plus $500 in government charges.
[Further reading: Which Trade Mark Class Should I Choose? A Simple Guide for Australian Businesses]
A registration lasts 10 years and can be renewed after that, for as long as you keep using the name.
Searching before you apply costs nothing at all.
Set that against the Zip situation. A decade of dispute, a High Court appeal, and finally buying the name from the other side.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to register a trademark in Australia? Through Trademarkability, one class costs $635 in total. That is our service fee of $350 plus $35 GST, and a government charge of $250 for the class. Two classes come to $1,187.50. Searching first is free.
Is a trademark search free in Australia? On Trademarkability, yes. You can run a trademark search or a trademark name check without paying and without creating an account. You only pay when you decide to apply.
Can I register a trademark for a name I already use as my business name? Usually yes, provided nobody else holds a conflicting registration and the name is distinctive enough to be accepted. Registering with ASIC does not protect the name and does not stop someone else registering it as a trade mark.
What else affects whether my application is accepted? Alongside what is on the register, acceptance depends on whether your name is distinctive enough and whether the classes are right. Our eligibility report covers both, with our legal team setting out the specific obstacles your name is likely to face before you apply.
What if someone is already using the name but has not registered it? Unregistered use will not show on the register, and a business with a long trading history under a name may still have a claim of its own. Registering is what puts your claim on the public record. If you know of someone trading under something close, raise it with us in the chat before you file.
Do I need to search every class? No, but you should search every class you sell in now and any you realistically expect to move into. Protection is limited to the classes you register.
Can I do this myself? Yes, and plenty of people do. The search is straightforward and free. The judgement calls, which classes to claim and how to read a near match, are the parts worth a second opinion, which is what the eligibility report and the live chat are there for.
Can I talk to someone before I apply? Yes. There is a live chat bubble in the bottom right corner of every page. During office hours you will reach a real person. Outside office hours, leave a message and we will get back to you.
Before you commit to the name
Zip Co spent more than ten years on a question that was answerable at the start.
You can answer yours in a few minutes, for nothing. Search your name, see what comes back, and if anything looks close, say so in the live chat before you make a decision. You will find the bubble in the bottom right corner.