Tobacco packaging reforms to be addressed in Trade Marks Act

The Australian Government has introduced an amendment to the national Trade Mark laws which is designed to give the government room to act on any unintended intellectual property consequences of recent legislative attempts to tackle tobacco use.

In the context of the Federal Government's push to introduce plain packaging on tobacco products the Minister for Health and Ageing, The Hon. Nicola Roxon, earlier this month introduced into the Parliament the Trade Marks Amendment (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Bill 2011 (Cth) (the bill). The bill amends the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) (the Trade Marks Act) to give the government room to respond, by way of regulations, to any 'unintended interactions' between the pending Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011(Cth) (the Plain Packaging Act) and the Trade Marks Act.