With help from the team at Gordon Legal, the Branch has trademarked our logo.
You probably don’t think about the ANMF (Vic Branch) logo very much. But you no doubt recognise it immediately when you see it.
In addition to being a symbol of identification and recognition for your union, a logo helps to create trust and authority – when you see materials bearing our logo, you know the information they contain has been approved and endorsed by the Branch.
It’s for this reason that organisations often trademark their logo.
What does this mean?
You will have seen logos, pictures or other content with the symbols TM or ® next to them.
The TM symbol can indicate an unregistered trademark – typically used when an organisation or company has applied for, but not yet received, trademark registration from the official regulatory body, IP Australia. The ®symbol indicates a registered trademark. Registered trademarks have legal protection, as per the Trade Marks Act 1995.
The ANMF (Vic Branch) logo has been registered with IP Australia. In future, you may see the ® symbol next to our logo.
The legal protection means that individuals, other organisations and businesses cannot use our logo without our prior consent; if they do, they can be sued for trademark infringement.
However, if you see our logo in future without the ® symbol, it is not necessarily unofficial usage.
Trademarking our logo gives ANMF the legal protection if we need it, but in everyday use it will have no implications for members.
